Volume 3 / Book 6 — CHAP. XI. Continue our Journey—Fall in with a Party of Galla—Prove our Friends—Pass the Nile—Arrive at Goutto, and visit the first Cataract.

On the second of November, at seven in the morning we pursued our journey in a direction southward, and passed the church of Boskon Abbo; ever memorable to us as being the station of Fasil in May, when he intended to cut us off after our passage of the Nile. This brought on a conversation with our guide Woldo, who had been present with Fasil at his camp behind this church, and afterwards when Michael offered him battle at Limjour, he was there attending his master. He said, that the army of Welleta Yasous was above 12,000 strong; that they were intending to attack the king at the ford, and had no doubt of doing it successfully, as they imagined the King and Ras Michael, with part of both horse and foot, would pass early, but the rest with difficulty and danger; it was at that instant Welleta Yasous was to fall upon those that remained with Kefla Yasous, on the other side of the Nile, in that confusion in which they necessarily must be. Fasil then, with above 3000 horse, and a large body of foot, was ready to inclose both Ras Michael and the King, and to have taken them prisoners; nothing could fall out more exactly, as it was planned, than this did; the king’s black horse, and the other horse of his household, had taken possession of the ford, till the King, the Ras, and the greatest part of the Tigré musqueteers, under Guebra Mascal, had passed.

On the other hand, Kefla Yasous, who had the charge of the rear, and the passing the mules, tents, and baggage, finding so many stragglers constantly coming in, had determined to wait on that side till day-light: this was the moment that would have decided the fate of our army; all was fatigue and despondency; but Welleta Yasous having lingered with the army of execution, and in the mean time the priests having been examined, and the spies detected, the moment Kefla Yasous began his march to Delakus, the favourable instant was lost to Fasil, and all that followed was extremely dangerous to him; for, before Welleta Yasous arrived, Kefla Yasous had passed the Nile, and was strongly posted with his musquetry, so that Welleta Yasous durst not approach him, and this gave Kefla Yasous an opportunity of detaching the best or freshest of his troops to reinforce Michael, whom Fasil found already an overmatch for him at Limjour, when he was forced to retreat before the king, who very willingly offered him battle: add to this, that Welleta Yasous was not acquainted how near this junction of Kefla Yasous with Ras Michael might be, nor where Fasil was, or whether or not he had been beaten. Woldo pretended to know nothing of the spy whom we had left hanging on the tree at the ford when Kefla Yasous marched; but he laid all the blame upon the priests, of whose information he was perfectly instructed.

At three quarters after ten in the morning we passed the small river Aroossi, which either gives its name to, or receives it from the district through which it passes: it falls into the Nile about four miles below; is a clear, small, brisk stream; its banks covered with verdure not to be described. At half an hour before noon we came to Roo; it is a level space, shaded round with trees in a small plain, where the neighbouring people of Goutto, Agow, and Maitsha hold a market for hides, honey, butter, and all kinds of cattle. Gold too is brought by the Agows from the neighbouring Shangalla; all the markets in Abyssinia are held in such places as this in the open fields, and under the shade of trees: every body, while he is there, is safe under the protection of the government where that market is kept, and no feuds or private animosities must be resented there; but they that have enemies must take care of themselves in coming and going, for then they are at their own risk.

In the dry bed of a river, at the foot of a small wood before you ascend the market-place at Roo, we found the Lamb, our friend the Jumper’s brother, concealed very much like a thief in a hole, where we might easily have passed him unnoticed; we gave him some tobacco, of which he was very fond, and a few trifles. We asked him what questions we pleased about the roads, which he answered plainly, shortly, and discreetly; he assured us no Maitsha people had passed, not even to the market, and this we found afterwards was strictly true; for such as had intelligence that he and his party were on that road, did not venture from home with their goods, so that the day before, which had been that of the market, no one chose to run the risk of attending it.

Woldo was very eloquent in praise of this officer the Lamb; he said he had a great deal more humanity than his brother, and when he made an inroad into Gojam, or any part of Abyssinia, he never murdered any women, not even those that were with child; a contrary custom it seems prevailing among all the Galla. I congratulated him upon this great instance of his humanity, which he took very gravely, as if really intended; he told me that it was he that attacked Michael’s horse at Limjour; and added, that, had it been any other, Ayto Welleta Michael’s life would not have been spared when he was taken prisoner. That want of curiosity, inattention, and absolute indifference for new objects, which was remarkable in the Jumper, was very plainly discernible in this chieftain likewise, and seems to be a characteristic of the nation.

I asked Woldo what became of those 44 Galla who had their eyes pulled out, after the battle of Fagitta, by Michael, on his return to Gondar. Not one of them, said he, ever came into his own country. It was reported the hyæna ate them upon the Angrab, where they were turned out to starve. I saved three of them, said I. Yes, answered he, and others might have been saved too: and then added, in a low voice, the hyænas eating them at the Angrab was a story contrived for the Galla; but we that are Fasil’s servants know they were made away with by his order in Maitsha and the Agow country, that none of them might be seen in their own provinces to terrify the rest of their clans by the mangled appearance they then bore; for this was Ras Michael’s intention in disfiguring them, and yet leaving them alive; to prevent therefore the success of this scheme, Fasil put them to death in their way before they reached their own country. I confess I was struck at the finesse which completed Waragna Fasil’s character in my mind. What, said I, kill his own people taken prisoners whilst fighting for him, merely because their enemies had cruelly deprived them of their sight! indeed, Woldo, that is not credible. O ho, says he, but it is true; your Galla are not like other men, they do not talk about what is cruel and what is not; they do just what is for their own good, what is reasonable, and think no more of the matter. Ras Michael, says he, would make an excellent Galla; and do not you believe that he would do any cruel action which my master Fasil would not perpetrate on the same provocation, and to answer the same purpose?

It now occurred to me why the three Galla, whom I had maintained at Gondar, had constantly refused to return into their own country with the many safe opportunities which at times had presented to them, especially since the king’s retreat to Tigré; neither had I observed any desire in Fasil’s servants, who occasionally came to Gondar, of helping to restore these unfortunate men to their country, because they knew the fate that awaited them.

Although the Lamb, and the other Galla his soldiers, paid very little attention, as I have said, to us, it was remarkable to see the respect they shewed Fasil’s horse; the greatest part of them, one by one, gave him handfuls of barley, and the Lamb himself had a long and serious conversation with him; Woldo told me it was all spent in regretting the horse’s ill-fortune, and Fasil’s cruelty, in having bestowed him upon a white man, who would not feed him, or ever let him return to Bizamo. Bizamo is a country of Galla south of the Nile, after it makes its southmost turn, and has surrounded the kingdom of Gojam. I was better pleased with this genuine mark of kindness to the horse, than all the proofs of humanity Woldo had attributed to his chieftain for not frequently putting to death pregnant women. When I remarked this, Bad men! bad men! all of them, says Woldo; but your Ras Michael will be among them one of these days, and pull all their eyes out again; and so much the better.

At Roo we left the direct road which leads to Buré, the residence of the governor of Damot, towards which place the route of the army was directed; so I took leave, as I hoped, for ever of my brethren the Galla, but still continued to drive the horse before me. We turned our face now directly upon the fountains of the Nile, which lay S. E. by S. according to the compass. At a quarter before noon we saw the high sharp-pointed mountain of Temhua, standing single in the form of a cone, at about 18 miles distance, and behind this the mountain of Banja, the place where Fasil almost exterminated the Agows in a battle soon after his return to Buré, and to revenge which the king’s last fatal campaign was undertaken in Maitsha, terminated by his retreat to Tigrè.

Here Strates, whilst amusing himself in the wood in search of new birds and beasts for our collection of natural history, fired his gun at one of the former, distinguished by the beauty and variety of its plumage. I stopt to make a rough sketch of it, which might be finished at more leisure: this was scarcely done, and we again moving forwards on our journey, when we heard a confusion of shrill, barbarous cries, and presently saw a number of horsemen pouring down upon us, with their lances lifted up in a posture ready to attack us immediately. The ground was woody and uneven, so they could not make the speed they seemed to desire, and we had just time to put ourselves upon our defence with our firelocks, musquets, and blunderbusses in our hands, behind our baggage. Woldo ran several paces towards them, knowing them by the cry to be friends, even before he had seen them, which was, Fasil ali, Fasil ali—there is none but Fasil that commands here. Upon seeing us without any marks of discomposure, they all stopt with Woldo, and by him we learned that this was the party we had passed commanded by the Lamb, who, after we had left him, had heard that five Agow horsemen had passed between the army and his party, and from the shot he had feared they might have attempted something against us, and he had thereupon come to our assistance with all the speed possible.

Thus did we see that this man, who, according to our ideas, seemed in understanding inferior to most of the brute creation, had yet, in executing his orders, a discernment, punctuality, activity, and sense of duty, equal to any Christian officer who should have had a like commission; he now appeared to us in a quite different light than when we first had met him; and his inattention, when we were with him, was the more agreeable, as it left us at our entire liberty, without teazing or molesting us, when he could be of no real service, as every Amharic soldier would have done. On the other hand, his alacrity and resolution, in the moment he thought us in danger, exhibited him to our view as having on both occasions just the qualities we could have desired. We now, therefore, shewed him the utmost civility, spread a table-cloth on the ground by the brook, mixed our honey and liquid butter together in a plate, and laid plenty of teff bread beside it. We invited the Lamb to sit down and breakfast with us, which he did, each of us dipping our hand with pieces of bread alternately into the dish which contained the honey; but Strates, whose heart was open, for he felt very gratefully the Lamb’s attention to save him from being murdered by the Agows, pulled out a large piece of raw beef, part of the bullock we killed at Kelti, which he had perfectly cleared from all incumbrance of bones, this he gave to the Lamb, desiring him to divide it among his men, which he did, keeping a very small proportion to himself, and which he ate before us. Drink we had none, but the water of the brook that ran by, for my people had finished all our other liquors at Kelti after I was in bed, when they were taking their leave of Guebra Mariam, Ozoro Esther’s servant.

It was now time to pursue our journey; and, to shew our gratitude for the real service this Lamb intended to have rendered us, I gave him four times the quantity of tobacco he had got before, and so in proportion of every other trifle; all these he took with absolute indifference as formerly, much as if it had been all his own; he expressed no sort of thanks either in his words or in his countenance; only while at breakfast said, that he was very much grieved that it had been but a false alarm, for he heartily desired that some robbers really had attacked us, that he might have shewn us how quickly and dexterously he would have cut them to pieces though there had been a hundred of them. I mentioned to Woldo my obligations to the Lamb for his good wishes, but that things were quite as well as they were; that I had no sort of curiosity for such exhibitions, which I did not however doubt he would have performed most dexterously.

We were now taking leave to proceed on our journey, and my servant folding up the table-cloth, when the Lamb desired to speak to Woldo, and for the first time ventured to make a request, which was a very extraordinary one; he begged that I would give him the table-cloth to cover his head, and keep his face from the sun. I could not help laughing within myself at the idea of preserving that beautiful complexion from sun-burning; but I gave him the cloth very readily, which he accordingly spread upon his head, till it covered half his face; he then got upon his horse and rode quietly away. Before he went, he detached fifteen men, Woldo said he did not know where, but by what he had gathered, and the route they had taken, he was sure that detachment was meant for our service, and to protect us on the right of our route, not having yet sufficiently quieted his own mind about the five Agows that passed between the army and his post the night we were at Kelti; these, however, being poorly mounted and armed, would not have found their account in meddling with us, though we had no wishes to shew our dexterity in destroying them, as our friend the Lamb was so desirous of doing, and we after discovered they were not quite so despicable as they were represented, nor were they Agows. All this passed in much less time than it is told. We were on horseback again in little more than half an hour; our friends were, like us, willing to meet and willing to part, only I ordered Strates to suspend his firing for that day, lest it should procure us another interview, which we by no means courted.

We had halted by the side of a small river which falls into the Assar; and a little before one o’clock we came to the Assar itself. The Assar, as I have already said, is the southern boundary of Aroossi, as Kelti is the northern; and as Aroossi is the southern district of Maitsha on the west side of the Nile, it follows that the Assar is the southern boundary of Maitsha.

On the other side of this river begins the province of Goutto, which, according to the ancient rules of government before Ras Michael destroyed all distinctions, depended on the province of Damot; whereas Maitsha belonged to the office of Betwudet since Fasil had appropriated both to himself by force, as well as the whole country of the Agows, which he had possessed by the same title ever since the battle of Banja: the inhabitants of Goutto are the ancient natives of that country; they are not Galla as those of Maitsha, but much more civilized and better governed. The language of the Agow and the Amharic are the two chiefly spoken in Goutto, though there are distant places towards the Jemma on the side of the Nile, where they speak that of the Falasha likewise. The people in Goutto are richer and better lodged than those of the neighbouring Maitsha; their whole country is full of cattle of the largest size, exceedingly beautiful, and of all the different colours; there are some places likewise where their honey is excellent, equal to any in the country of the Agows, but the greatest quantity of it is of low price and of little esteem, owing to the lupine flowers on which the bees feed, and of which a great quantity covers the whole face of the country; this gives a bitterness to the greatest part of the honey, and occasions, as they believe, vertigo’s, or dizzinesses, to those that eat it: the same would happen with the Agows, did they not take care to eradicate the lupines throughout their whole country.

All this little territory of Aroossi is by much the most pleasant that we had seen in Abyssinia, perhaps it is equal to any thing the east can produce; the whole is finely shaded with acacia-trees, I mean the acacia vera, or the Egyptian thorn, the tree which, in the sultry parts of Africa, produces the gum-arabic. These trees grow seldom above fifteen or sixteen feet high, then flatten and spread wide at the top, and touch each other, while the trunks are far asunder, and under a vertical sun, leave you, many miles together, a free space to walk in a cool, delicious shade. There is scarce any tree but this in Maitsha; all Guanguera and Wainadega are full of them; but in these last-mentioned places, near the capital, where the country grows narrower, being confined between the lake and the mountains, these trees are more in the way of the march of armies, and are thinner, as being constantly cut down for fuel, and never replanted, or suffered to replace themselves, which they otherwise would do, and cover the whole face of the country, as once apparently they did. The ground below those trees, all throughout Aroossi, is thick covered with lupines, almost to the exclusion of every other flower; wild oats also grow up here spontaneously to a prodigious height and size, capable often of concealing both the horse and his rider, and some of the stalks being little less than an inch in circumference. They have, when ripe, the appearance of small canes. The inhabitants make no sort of use of this grain in any period of its growth: the uppermost thin hulk of it is beautifully variegated with a changeable purple colour; the taste is perfectly good. I often made the meal into cakes in remembrance of Scotland.

The Abyssinians never could relish these cakes, which they said were bitter, and burnt their stomachs, as also made them thirsty. I do, however, believe this is the oat in its original state, and that it is degenerated everywhere with us. The soil of this country is a fine black mould, in appearance like to that which composes our gardens. The oat seems to delight in a moist, watery soil; and, as no underwood grows under the shadow of the trees, the plough passes without interruption. As there is likewise no iron in their plough, (for is it all composed of wood) the furrow is a very slight one, nor does the plough reach deep enough to be entangled with the roots of trees; but it is the north part of Maitsha, however, that is chiefly in culture; south of the Kelti all is pasture; a large number of horses is bred here yearly, for it is the custom among the Galla to be all horsemen or graziers.

All Aroossi is finely watered with small streams, though the Assar is the largest river we had seen except the Nile; it was about 170 yards broad and two feet deep, running over a bed of large stones; though generally through a flat and level country, it is very rapid, and after much rain scarcely passable, owing to the height of its source in the mountains of the Agows; its course, where we forded it, is from south to north, but it soon turns to the north-east, and, after flowing five or six miles, joins the Nile and loses itself in that river.

Immediately below this ford of the Assar is a magnificent cascade, or cataract. I computed the perpendicular height of the fall to be above 20 feet, and the breadth of the stream to be something more than 80; but it is so closely covered with trees or bushes, and the ground so uneven, that it needs great perseverance and attention to approach it nearly with safety; the stream covers the rock without leaving any part of it visible, and the whole river falls uninterrupted down with an incredible violence and noise, without being anyway broken or divided; below this cataract it becomes considerably narrower, and, as we have said, in this state runs on to join the Nile.

The strength of vegetation which the moisture of this river produces, supported by the action of a very warm sun, is such as one might naturally expect from theory, though we cannot help being surprised at the effects when we see them before us, trees and shrubs covered with flowers of every colour, all new and extraordinary in their shapes, crowded with birds of many uncouth forms, all of them richly adorned with variety of plumage, and seeming to fix their residence upon the banks of this river, without a desire of wandering to any distance in the neighbouring fields: But as there is nothing, though ever so beautiful, that has not some defect or imperfection, among all these feathered beauties there is not one songster; and, unless of the rose, or jessamin kind, none of their flowers have any smell; we hear indeed many squalling noisy birds of the jay kind, and we find two varieties of wild roses, white and yellow, to which I may add jessamin (called Leham) which becomes a large tree; but all the rest of the birds or flowers may be considered as liable to the general observation, that the flowers are destitute of odour, and the birds of song.

After passing the Assar, and several villages belonging to Goutto, our course being S. E. we had, for the first time, a distinct view of the high mountain of Geesh, the long-wished-for end of our dangerous and troublesome journey. Under this mountain are the fountains of the Nile; it bore from us S. E. by S. about thirty miles, as near as we could conjecture, in a straight line, without counting the deviations or crookedness of the road.

Ever since we had passed the Assar we had been descending gently through very uneven ground, covered thick with trees, and torn up by the gullies and courses of torrents. At two o’clock in the afternoon of the second of November we came to the banks of the Nile; the passage is very difficult and dangerous, the bottom being full of holes made by considerable springs, light sinking sand, and, at every little distance, large rocky stones; the eastern side was muddy and full of pits, the ground of clay: the Nile here is about 260 feet broad, and very rapid; its depth about four feet in the middle of the river, and the sides not above two. Its banks are of a very gentle, easy descent; the western side is chiefly ornamented with high trees of the salix, or willow tribe, growing straight, without joints or knots, and bearing long pointed pods full of a kind of cotton. This tree is called, in their language, Ha; the use they have for it is to make charcoal for the composition of gunpowder; but on the eastern side, the banks, to a considerable distance from the river, are covered with black, dark, and thick groves, with craggy-pointed rocks, and overshaded with some old, tall, timber trees going to decay with age; a very rude and awful face of nature, a cover from which our fancy suggested a lion should issue, or some animal or monster yet more savage and ferocious.

The veneration still paid in this country for the Nile, such as obtained in antiquity, extends to the territory of Goutto, and I believe very little farther; the reason is, I apprehend, that to this, and no lower, the country has remained under its ancient inhabitants. Below, we know Maitsha has been occupied within these few ages by Pagan Galla, transplanted here for political purposes; at Goutto, however, and in the provinces of the Agows, the genuine indigenæ have not emigrated, and with these the old superstition is more firmly rooted in their hearts than is the more recent doctrine of Christianity; they crowded to us at the ford, and they were, after some struggle, of great use in passing us, but they protested immediately with great vehemence against any man’s riding across the stream, mounted either upon horse or mule: they, without any sort of ceremony, unloaded our mules, and laid our baggage upon the grass, insisting that we should take off our shoes, and making an appearance of stoning those who attempted to wash the dirt off their cloaks and trowsers in the stream. My servants were by this provoked to return rudeness for rudeness, and Woldo gave them two or three significant threats, while I sat by exceedingly happy at having so unexpectedly found the remnants of veneration for that ancient deity still subsisting in such full vigour. They after this allowed us, as well as our horses and mules, to drink, and conducted me across the river, holding me on each side very attentively for fear of the holes; but the want of shoes was very inconvenient, the pointed rocks and stones at the bottom giving me several deep cuts on the soles of my feet; after this the beasts were led all to the same side with myself, also one servant was passed with the greatest care by these poor people. Woldo had tipt me the wink to cross as they desired me: except my single gun, all the fire-arms and servants remained with the baggage and Woldo; and now we soon saw what was his intention, and how well he understood that the country he was in belonged to Fasil his master.

There were between twenty and thirty of the Agows, old and young, some of them armed with lances and shields, and all of them with knives. Woldo took his small stick in one hand, sat down upon a green hillock by the ford with his lighted pipe in the other; he ranged my people behind him, leaving the baggage by itself, and began gravely to exhort the Agows to lose no time in carrying over our baggage upon their shoulders. This proposal was treated with a kind of ridicule by the foremost of the Agows, and they began plainly to insinuate that he should first settle with them a price for their trouble. He continued, however, smoaking his pipe in seeming leisure, and much at his ease, and, putting on an air of great wisdom, in a tone of moderation he appealed to them whether they had not of their own accord insisted on our crossing the river on foot, had unloaded our baggage, and sent the mules to the other side without our consent. The poor people candidly declared that they had done so, because none are permitted in any other manner to cross the Nile, but that they would likewise carry our baggage safely and willingly over for pay; this word was no sooner uttered, when, apparently in a most violent passion, he leapt up, laid by his pipe, took his stick, and ran into the midst of them, crying out with violent execrations, And who am I? and who am I then? a girl, a woman, or a Pagan dog like yourselves? and who is Waragna Fasil; are you not his slaves? or to whom else do you belong, that you are to make me pay for the consequences of your devilish idolatries and superstitions? but you want payment, do ye? here is your payment: he then tuckt his clothes tight about his girdle, began leaping two or three feet high, and laying about him with his stick over their heads and faces, or wherever he could strike them.

After this Woldo wrested a lance from a long, aukward fellow that was next him, standing amazed, and levelled the point at him in a manner that I thought to see the poor peasant fall dead in an instant: the fellow fled in a trice, so did they all to a man; and no wonder, for in my life I never saw any one play the furious devil so naturally. Upon the man’s running off, he cried out to my people to give him a gun, which made these poor wretches run faster and hide themselves among the bushes: lucky, indeed, was it for Woldo that my servants did not put him to the trial, by giving him the gun as he demanded, for he would not have ventured to fire it, perhaps to have touched it, if it had been to have made him master of the province.

I, who sat a spectator on the other side, thought we were now in a fine scrape, the evening coming on at a time of the year when it is not light at six, my baggage and servants on one side of the river, myself and beasts on the other, crippled absolutely in the feet by the stones, and the river so full of pits and holes, that, had they been all laden on the other side and ready, no one could have been bold enough to lead a beast through without a guide: the difficulty was not imaginary, I had myself an instant before made proof of it, and all difficulties are relative, greater or less, as you have means in your hands to overcome them. I was clearly satisfied that Woldo knew the country, and was provided with a remedy for all this; I conceived that this pacific behaviour, while they were unloading the mules, and driving them across the river, as well as his fury afterwards, was part of some scheme, with which I was resolved in no shape to interfere; and nothing convinced me more of this than his resolute demand of a gun, when no persuasion could make him stay within ten yards of one if it was discharged, even though the muzzle was pointed a contrary direction. I sat still, therefore, to see the end, and it was with some surprise that I observed him to take his pipe, stick, and my servants along with him, and cross the river to me as if nothing had happened, leaving the baggage on the other side, without any guard whatsoever; he then desired us all to get on horseback, and drive the mules before us, which we did accordingly; and I suppose we had not advanced about a hundred yards before we saw a greater number of people than formerly run down to where our baggage was lying, and, while one crossed the river to desire us to stay where we were, the rest brought the whole over in an instant.

This, however, did not satisfy our guide; he put on a sulky air, as if he had been grievously injured; he kept the mules where they were, and would not send one back to be loaded at the river-side, alledging it was unlucky to turn back upon a journey; he made them again take the baggage on their shoulders, and carry it to the very place where our mules had halted, and there lay it down. On this they all flocked about him, begging that he would not report them to his master, as fearing some fine, or heavy chastisement, would fall upon their villages. The guide looked very sulky, said but very little, and that all in praise of himself, of his known mildness and moderation; as an instance of which he appealed (impudently enough) to his late behaviour towards them. If such a one, says he, naming a man that they knew, had been in my place, what a fine reckoning he would have made with you; why, your punishment would not have ended in seven years. They all acknowledged the truth of his observation, as well as his moderation, gave him great commendations, and, I believe, some promises when he passed there on his return.

Here I thought our affair happily ended to the satisfaction of all parties. I mounted my horse, and Woldo went to a large silk bag, or purse, which I had given him full of tobacco, and he had his match and pipe in his hand, just as if he was going to fill it before he set out; he then unloosed the bag, felt it on the outside, putting first his three fingers, then his whole hand, pinching and squeezing it both withinside and without; at last he broke out in a violent transport of rage, crying that his gold was gone, and that they had robbed him of it. I had not till this spoke one word: I asked him what he meant by his gold. He said he had two ounces (value about 5l.) in his tobacco purse, and that some person had laid hold of them when the baggage lay on the other side of the water; that the Agows had done it, and that they must pay him for it. The despair and anguish that he had counterfeited quickly appeared in true and genuine colours in the faces of all the poor Agows; for his part, he disdained to speak but in monosyllables—So, so, and very well, and no matter, you shall see—and shook his head. We now proceeded on our journey; but two of the eldest among the Agows followed him to our quarters at night, where they made their peace with Woldo, who, I doubt not, dealt with them according to his usual mildness, justice, and moderation; a specimen of which we have already seen.

I confess this complicated piece of roguery, so suddenly invented, and so successfully carried into execution, gave me, for the first time, serious reflections upon my own situation, as we were in fact entirely in this man’s hand. Ayto Aylo’s servant, indeed, continued with me, but he was now out of his knowledge and influence, and, from many hints he had given, very desirous of returning home: he seemed to have no great opinion of Woldo, and, indeed, had been in low spirits, and disgusted with our journey, since he had seen the reception I first met with from Fasil at Bamba; but I had use for him till we should arrive at the house of Shalaka Welled Amlac, which was in the middle of Maitsha, and in the way by which we were to return. I had therefore been very kind to him, allowing him to ride upon one of my mules all the way. I had given him some presents likewise, and promised him more, so that he continued with me, though not very willingly, observing every thing, but saying little; however, to me it was plain that Woldo stood in awe of him, for fear probably of his master Fasil, for Aylo had over him a most absolute influence, and Guebra Ehud (Aylo’s brother) had been present, when Aylo’s servant set out with us from Bamba under charge of this Woldo.

To Woldo, too, I had been very attentive: I had anticipated what I saw were his wishes, by small presents and more considerable promises. I had told him plainly at Bamba, in presence of Fasil’s Fit-Auraris and Ayto Welleta Michael, (Ras Michael’s nephew) that I would reward him in their sight according to his behaviour; that I scarcely thanked him for his being barely faithful, for so he was accountable to his master, whose honour was pledged for my safety; but that I expected he would not attempt to impose upon me, nor suffer others to do so, nor terrify me unnecessarily upon the road, nor obstruct me in my pursuits, be sulky, or refuse to answer the inquires that I made about the countries through which we were to pass. All this was promised, repromised, and repeatedly sworn to, and the Fit-Auraris had assured me that he knew certainly this man would please me, and that Fasil was upon honour when he had chosen him to attend me, although he had then use for him in other business; and it is not less true, that, during the whole of our journey hitherto, he had behaved perfectly to the letter of his promise, and I had omitted no opportunity to gratify him by several anticipations of mine.

I had upon me a large beautiful red-silk sash, which went six or seven times round, in which I carried my crooked knife and two pistols; he had often admired the beauty of it, inquired where it was made, and what it might have cost. I had answered often negligently and at random, and I had thought no more of it, as his inquiries had gone no further. The time which he had fixed upon was not yet come, and we shall presently see how very dexterously he prolonged it.

We arrived, with these delays, pretty late at Goutto, (the village so called) and took up our lodgings in the house of a considerable person, who had abandoned it upon our approach, thinking us part of Fasil’s army. Though this habitation was of use in protecting us from the poor, yet it hurt us by alarming, and so depriving us of the assistance of the opulent, such as the present owner, who, if he had known we were strangers from Gondar, would have willingly staid and entertained us, being a relation and friend of Shalaka Welled Amlac.

As we heard distinctly the noise of the cataract, and had still a full hour and a half of light, while they were in search of a cow to kill, (the cattle having been all driven away or concealed) I determined to visit the water-fall, lest I should be thereby detained the next morning. As Fasil’s horse was fresh, by not being rode, I mounted him instead of driving him before me, and took a servant of my own, and a man of the village whom Woldo procured for us, as I would not allow him to go himself. Being well armed, I thus set out, with the peasant on foot, for the cataract; and, after riding through a plain, hard country, in some parts very stony, and thick-covered with trees, in something more than half an hour’s easy galloping all the way, my servant and I came straight to the cataract, conducted there by the noise of the fall, while our guide remained at a considerable distance behind, not being able to overtake us.

This, known by the name of the First Cataract of the Nile, did not by its appearance come up to the idea we had formed of it, being scarce sixteen feet in height, and about sixty yards over; but in many places the sheet of water is interrupted, and leaves dry intervals of rock. The sides are neither so woody nor verdant as those of the cataract of the Assar; and it is in every shape less magnificent, or deserving to be seen, than is the noble cataract at Alata before described, erroneously called the Second Cataract; for below this there is a water-fall, nearly west of the church of Boskon Abbo, not much above the place where we swam our horses over in May, and less than this first cataract of which I am speaking, and nearer the source; there is another still smaller before the Nile joins the river Gumetti, after falling from the plains of Sacala; and there are several still smaller between the fountains and the junction of the Nile with the river Davola; these last mentioned, however, are very insignificant, and appear only when the Nile is low: in the rainy season, when the river is full, they scarcely are distinguished by ruffling the water as it passes.

Having satisfied my curiosity at this cataract, I galloped back the same road that I had come, without having seen a single person since I left Goutto. Fasil’s horse went very pleasantly, he did not like the spur, indeed, but he did not need it. On our arrival we found a cow upon the point of being killed; there was no appearance of any such to be found when I set out for the cataract, but the diligence and sagacity of Woldo had overcome that difficulty. By a particular manner of crying through his hands applied to his mouth, he had contrived to make some beasts answer him, who were hid in an unsuspected bye-place, one of which being detected was killed without mercy.

It was now, I thought, the proper time to give Woldo a lesson as to the manner in which I was resolved to behave among the Agows, who I knew had been reduced to absolute poverty by Fasil after the battle of Banja. I told him, that since the king had given me the small territory of Geesh, I was resolved to take up my abode there for some time; and also, to make my coming more agreeable, it was my intention for that year to discharge them of any taxes which they paid the king, or their superior Fasil, in whose places I then stood. “Stay, says Woldo, don’t be in such a hurry, see first how they behave.”—“No, said I, I will begin by teaching them how to behave; I will not wait till their present misery prompts them to receive ill (as they very naturally will do) a man who comes, as they may think, wantonly for curiosity only, to take from them and their starved families the little Fasil has left them; the question I ask you then is briefly this, Do you conceive yourself obliged to obey me, as to what I shall judge necessary to direct you to do, during my journey to Geesh and back again?” He answered, By all means, or he could never else return to his master Fasil. “This, then, said I, is the line of conduct I mean to pursue while I am among the Agows; you shall have money to buy every thing; you shall have money, or presents, or both, to pay those that serve us, or that shew us any kindness, and when we shall join your master Fasil (as I hope we shall do together) you shall tell him that I have received his majesty’s rent of the Agows of Geesh, and I will enter a receipt for it in the king’s deftar, or revenue-book at Gondar, if we see him there, as I expect we shall, upon my return. I, moreover, undertake, that we shall gain more by this than by any other method we could have pursued.” “There is one thing, however, says Woldo, you would not surely have me free them the dues paid by every village where a king’s servant is employed to conduct strangers, as I am you.” “No, no, I do not go so near as that; we shall only buy what you would have otherwise taken by force for my use.”

“Some years ago, says Woldo, when I was a young man, in king Yasous’s time, a white man, called Negadé Ras Georgis, had both Geesh and Sacala given him by the king; he went there twice a-year, and staid a month or more at a time; he was a great hunter and drinker, and a devil for the women; he not only spent what he got from the village, but all the money he brought from Gondar into the bargain; it was a jovial time, as I have heard; all was merriment: The first day he came there, some of the men of Sacala, out of sport, disputing with three of the Agows of Zeegam, fell to it with their knives and lances, and four men were killed in an instant upon the spot; fine stout fellows, every one like a lion; good men all of them; there are no such days seen now, unless they come about when you are there, and then I shall have my share of every thing”. “Woldo, said I, with all my heart; I shall be otherwise employed; but you shall be at perfect liberty to partake of every sport, always excepting the diversion of killing four men.” But I had observed this day, with some surprise, that he doubted several times whether we were on the way to the fountains of the Nile or not; and I did not think this prospect of entertainment which I held out to him was received with such joy as I expected, or as if he meant to partake of it.

Strates had refused to go to the first cataract, having so violent an appetite that he could not abandon the cow; and, after my arrival, it was his turn to watch that night. When I was lain down to rest in a little hovel like a hog’s sty, near where they were sitting, I heard a warm dispute among the servants, and, upon inquiry, found Strates was preparing steaks on a gridiron to make an entertainment for himself while the rest were sleeping; these, on the other hand, were resolved to play him a trick to punish his gluttony. When the steaks were spread upon the gridiron, Woldo had undertaken to pour some fine dust, or sand, through the hole in the roof, which served as a chimney; and this he had done with success as often as Strates went to any distance from the fire. Not content, however, with the position in which he then was, but desirous to do it more effectually, he attempted to change his place upon the roof where he stood, thinking it all equally strong to bear him; but in this he was mistaken; the part he was removing to suddenly gave way, and down he came upon the floor, bringing half the roof and part of the wall, together with a prodigious dust, into the fire.

The surprise and sight of his own danger made Woldo repeat some ejaculation to himself in Galla. My servants, who were waiting the success of the scheme, cried, The Galla! the Galla! and Strates, who thought the whole army of wild Galla had surrounded the house, fell upon his face, calling Maruni! Maruni!—Spare me! spare me!—I was in a profound sleep when roused by the noise of the roof, the falling of the man, and the cry of Galla! Galla! I started up, and laid hold of a musket loaded with slugs, a bayonet at the end of it, and ran to the door, when the first thing I saw was Woldo examining his hurts, or burns, but without any arms. A laugh from without made me directly suppose what it was, and I was presently fully satisfied by the figure Strates and Woldo made, covered with dirt and dust from the roof; but, while they were entertaining themselves with this foolish trick, the thatch that had fallen upon the fire began to flame, and it was with the utmost difficulty we extinguished it, otherwise the whole village might have been burnt down.—I heard distinctly the noise of the cataract all this night.