A very pleasant evening followed; conversation upon home and Indian news occupied the few hours before we retired to rest; and amidst the luxuries and conveniences, so abundantly supplied to the Embassy by the indulgent care of a liberal Government, I almost fancied that I had returned to the pleasures and comforts of civilized life. As my cloak, coats, and carpet, which constituted my bed, were left at Farree, my courteous entertainer, Capt. Harris, supplied me with an abundance of warm clothing for the night, and I slept well in an adjoining tent, of black worsted-cloth, manufactured by the Abyssinians.
Unfortunately, amidst all his kindness, Capt. Harris considered it to be his duty to take notes of my conversation, without my being aware in the slightest degree of such a step, or being conscious of the least necessity for his doing so. On my becoming aware of this circumstance, a few weeks after, by the distortion of a most innocent remark of mine, which was imputed to me in a sense that I never dreamt of employing it, I retorted in a manner that led to further proceedings; and from that time all intercourse between the members of the Embassy and myself ceased for some months.
CHAPTER V.
Staying at Angolahlah.—Waterfall into the Tcherkos river.—Difficulty in obtaining the stores.—Journey to Ankobar.—Female slaves of the Negoos.—Belief of the Shoan Church.—Father Tellez.—Vegetables introduced into Shoa.
June 1st.—This morning Capt. Harris and Mr. Scott were busily engaged writing a strong remonstrance to the King upon the subject of the detention of the latter in Farree, and the seizure by the Wallasmah, of the despatches and stores. I had waived all consideration of the indignities offered to myself, as I saw that from some inexplicable reason Capt. Harris wished to restrict the letter to a notice of the imprisonment of Mr. Scott; although I was rather surprised that the letter which was written in English should be taken by that gentleman himself, with a Persian interpreter, who spoke Amharic very imperfectly, to explain it. However, they did not see the Negoos, and beyond the letter being duly entered in the record-book of the Embassy, no other steps were taken on account of the infraction of the commercial treaty which had been entered into between Sahale Selassee, Negoos of Shoa, and Capt. Harris, the representative of Her Majesty at that court.
During the three succeeding days, numerous bearers brought to Angolahlah the stores from Farree, and by orders of the Negoos all were deposited in the palace-yard, nor was one allowed to be touched or seen by our Ambassador. All this time I amused myself as well as I could, reading some volumes upon African discoveries; sometimes taking a short walk along a narrow flat through which a little meandering stream flowed directly to the Lomee Wans, or Lemon river, which has cut a deep and wide ravine in front of the village of Tcherkos, celebrated as being the scene of a dreadful massacre of Christians by a rebel governor of Shoa, named Matoka, some few years before. This ravine extends from the south, in a direction towards the north-east, and joins, or is continuous with that to the west of the town of Debra Berhan, where the Barissa, in its course to the Jumma, forms, in the rainy season, some magnificent waterfalls.
Some idea of the depth to which even these early tributaries of the Abi (Bruce’s Nile) have denuded their channels may be derived from the fact, that the little stream, along the banks of which I used to direct my steps, after a course of scarcely two miles, leaps down, in one unbroken fall, seven hundred feet to join the rivulet below, for the Lomee Wans deserves no higher title. I can easily comprehend, therefore, the astonishing fact that after flowing the short distance of two hundred and fifty miles, the river Abi should be found by Dr. Beke not more than three thousand feet above the level of the sea, although flowing through a table land, the general elevation of which exceeds nine thousand feet.
On the fourth morning of my stay at Angolahlah, a page came from the King to desire Capt. Harris to attend at the palace. Shortly after this was complied with, another summons arrived for one of the soldiers, who was employed as a carpenter, to follow also. In about half an hour, the whole party returned, the interpreter, Ibrahim, carrying in his cloak the torn-up, tarpaulin-covered packages of letters. I now learnt that the Negoos had commanded that the boxes and other things should be burst open in his presence. This arbitrary command being immediately complied with, after the first few were examined, he graciously gave permission for the whole to be removed to the tents of the Embassy, being satisfied with the willingness shown to gratify him in his most unreasonable demands. This humiliating concession, I am convinced, would not have been required had not the monarch felt some jealous misgivings as to the amount of prerogative he had curtailed himself of by attaching his signature to the treaty of commerce; the first fruits of which had been the impolitical letter of remonstrance on a previous occasion; the innocent writer of which, Mr. Krapf, had already been made to feel the kingly resentment by the ill-usage that gentleman received from the chief, Adara Billee, when he endeavoured to return to Shoa, after an unsuccessful attempt to reach the city of Gondah.
For the future, I shall endeavour to relate the incidents of my residence in Shoa, with as little allusion to politics as possible, but the reader must excuse the few remarks I have already made, convinced as I am, that the physical failure of the expedition on the western coast of Africa, under Capt. Trotter, is much less to be regretted, than the great moral injury the cause of African civilization and English influence in that continent have sustained by the incapability of one man, and the ill-judged proceedings which characterized his ambassadorial career. I am not the proper person, however, to sit in judgment upon any one; but I know from personal experience, that as regards Southern Abyssinia, the merchant and the missionary must now seek other situations for carrying out their interesting and philanthropic projects for the regeneration of Africa.[2]
I found the weather so exceedingly cold, and the time at Angolahlah pass so uselessly and heavily along, that I was very glad, after a week’s stay, to be again on the road back to Ankobar. The day previous to my leaving Angolahlah, I engaged a servant, named Walderheros, tall, athletic, but of most ill-favoured countenance, so much so, that “Gool,” to which eastern vampire he was compared by the members of the Mission, became his cognomen afterwards amongst them. My mule being saddled, we started early in the morning, as I was desirous of getting as far on the road as possible before the sun had ascended so high as to render the ride unpleasantly warm. Walderheros trudged along on foot by the side of my mule, carrying my carabine behind his neck, with his two hands resting upon the projecting portions on either side. He talked incessantly, and it did not seem to matter the least, that I could not understand a word he said. To check him, I repeated, with a very grave face, the whole of “My name is Norval.” He listened patiently to the end, and it then seemed to strike him that we should amuse ourselves much better, if he were to teach me in his own language the names of surrounding objects, rather than listen to such another long rigmarole I was also about to treat him with. Thereupon commenced my first Amharic lesson, and as I was a willing pupil, and Walderheros an untiring teacher, I made great progress during the ride.