Residence in Aliu Amba.—Settlement with the Hy Soumaulee.—Proceed to Ankobar.—Obtain the requisite sum.—Relapse of intermittent fever.—Occupation.—Geographical information.—Course of the Gibbee.—Character of table land of Abyssinia.
June 18th.—I had now been three days in Aliu Amba, and had begun to be familiar with the circumstances around me, when the presence of several of my Hy Soumaulee friends recalled the promise I had made to them, and rendered it again necessary to undertake the toilsome ascent to Ankobar. My Dongola acquaintance, Hadjji Abdullah, lent me his mule, and off I started, leaving the Hy Soumaulee, who accompanied me across the market-place, to amuse themselves how they could during my absence. Walderheros walked by my side, and by nine o’clock we arrived at the Residency where a little flag, displayed, telegraphed the presence of the Ambassador, Captain Harris, who had come into town the night before from Angolahlah. I was compelled to solicit, as a personal favour, that which was denied as an act of justice; on the strong representation that “these thirty dollars would be the price of my blood,” our singularly constituted Ambassador reluctantly consented to advance me that sum from the treasury. Let it be observed, that not one word of approbation was bestowed upon the endeavours I had made to obtain the restoration of the boxes, &c., left by Messrs. Bernatz and Scott at Hiero Murroo; and when I alluded to that circumstance, the reply I received was, “that any other party coming up would have brought them on.” The irritation and excitement consequent upon this interview aided the predisposition to a relapse, and to that I principally attribute the long illness which, from this date, afflicted me for many months.
My request, however, in the end being acceded to, after breakfast I prepared to return immediately to Aliu Amba. Mr. Assistant-Surgeon Kirk brought me a polite invitation from Captain Harris to remain at least for the day. Being the anniversary of Waterloo, some appropriate entertainment was proposed, but as I received the message in no very friendly spirit it was not repeated.
Of the thirty Hy Soumaulee engaged at Herhowlee, only seventeen came to receive their additional dollars, the remainder having left Channo with a Kafilah that started before my first return to Aliu Amba. The Ras had engaged them to accompany him across the disturbed country between the Hawash and Hiero Murroo, and after this party had received the dollar and tobe from Ohmed Mahomed, believing they should obtain no more, they had taken the opportunity of returning home. The remainder came in parties for the two or three succeeding days, and went away satisfied with me, but with some feeling of resentment against my worthy Ras ul Kafilah, Ohmed Mahomed.
The first decided recurrence of a fit of the intermittent fever, the paroxysms returning every other day, from which I had suffered so much in Bombay and Aden, came on during the afternoon of the day I returned from Ankobar. My illness, however, did not completely lay me up; for although on the day when the ague fits occurred it was with the greatest difficulty I could leave my bed, still, during the intermediate ones I could always occupy myself in obtaining information, either in the Amharic language, or respecting the interesting circumstances of novel character which surrounded me.
Many instructive conversations have I had with the numerous retired slave merchants who reside in Aliu Amba. The knowledge these men possessed of the country to the south of Shoa, the kingdoms of Gurague, of Enarea, of Zingero and of Limmoo, with others still more remote, was extensive and valuable, and was the result of actual visits to these places for the purpose of procuring slaves. Successful slave merchants have this character in common with horse dealers, that they are generally intelligent and shrewd men, and when they have no object to serve by concealing the truth, they may be relied upon to a considerable extent; for none know better the value of a straightforward tale to secure confidence and good opinion. Profound judges of human nature from their habits and occupation, no one speaks truth like a clever cheating slave-dealer when it will suit his purpose. One of them in particular, however, I chose to be my geographical instructor,—an old man named Ibrahim, a native of the city of Hurrah, who possessed every mental requisite to have been recognised as a first rate traveller, had he only possessed opportunities to record the observations he had made upon men and countries that he had visited.[5]
Ibrahim had evidently amused himself during his journeys into slave districts by examining the characters of the very different people with whom he came in contact, and the striking contrasts he observed had led his attentive mind to the consideration of the probable causes for the anomalies he witnessed of the black Shankalli, the red Amhara, and the yellow Gonga, all inhabiting a plateau of limited extent. In the course of his long life having traversed in different directions the whole of the table land from Enarea to Gondah, he had been enabled by comparison and re-observation to check and correct himself upon many points which would otherwise have been very obscure. It was not unusual for him to repeat to me instances of such errors that he had at first fallen into, but which he was subsequently enabled to correct by other opportunities of observation. His ideas upon ethnology were also exceedingly interesting and curious, and I am convinced myself that many conclusions he had arrived at on this subject are correct, for by comparing my book-acquired information with the remarkable knowledge he had collected from facts, I could confirm many of the singular truths that seemed to have enlightened his mind, and which contributed greatly to my own progress in that science.
My aged instructor would frequently draw upon the earth floor of my residence a rude diagram of the elevated plateau of Abyssinia, which was supposed for our purposes to extend to the parallel of Massoah in the north, and to that of Zanzibar in the south. East and west its extent was represented to be about half this distance. In a large depression in the eastern border, the sources of the river Hawash were represented to be, and opposite, upon the west, was a similar indentation, where the waters of the various rivers that drain this table land fall from above to join the Nile below. Abyssinia, in fact, stands prominently upon the low land around it, like an island in a dried-up sea, and it is this which has given occasion for the Abyssinians to compare their country with the orange red flower of the Soof, (Carthamus tinctorius,)[6] the compound corolla surrounded by sharp thorns, which are supposed aptly enough to represent the barbarous Galla tribes that beset Abyssinia on every side.
In this delineation of Abyssinia by Ibrahim I first observed the discrepancy between the present received opinions of our geographers, that that country is connected on the south with a supposed extensive table land in the interior of Africa, and that which is entertained by the natives themselves, of the well defined and distinctly marked isolated plateau they inhabit.
Upon the represented surface of Abyssinia two principal streams were now delineated, one called the Abiah, flowing from the east and the south; and the other from the north, the Abi, or Bruce’s Nile, which falls into the Abiah immediately after leaving the table land in the vicinity of Fazuglo. From the rivers Abi and Abiah is derived the name Abisha, the original of our word Abyssinia, signifying the country of the Abi; “cha” or “sha,” country, being a frequent compound of the names of large localities, as Dembeacha, the country of Dembea; Angotcha, the country of Angot; Damotcha, and many others.