In overlooking the work I have found one circumstance, and I think no more, which is not sufficiently clear, and may create a momentary doubt in the reader’s mind, although to those who have been sufficiently attentive to the narrative, I can scarce think it will do this. The difficulty is, How did you procure funds to support yourself, and ten men, so long, and so easily, as to enable you to undervalue the useful character of a physician, and seek neither to draw money nor protection from it? And how came it, that, contrary to the usage of other travellers, at Gondar you maintained a character of independence and equality, especially at court; instead of crouching, living out of sight as much as possible, in continual fear of priests, under the patronage, or rather as servant to some men of power.
To this sensible and well-founded doubt I answer with great pleasure and readiness, as I would do to all others of the same kind, if I could possibly divine them:—It is not at all extraordinary that a stranger like me, and a parcel of vagabonds like those that were with me, should get themselves maintained, and find at Gondar a precarious livelihood for a limited time. A mind ever so little polished and instructed has infinite superiority over Barbarians, and it is in circumstances like these that a man sees the great advantages of education. All the Greeks in Gondar were originally criminals and vagabonds; they neither had, nor pretended to any profession, except Petros the king’s chamberlain, who had been a shoemaker at Rhodes, which profession at his arrival he carefully concealed. Yet these were not only maintained, but by degrees, and without pretending to be physicians, obtained property, commands, and places.
Hospitality is the virtue of Barbarians, who are hospitable in the ratio that they are barbarous, and for obvious reasons this virtue subsides among polished nations in the same proportion. If on my arrival in Abyssinia I assumed a spirit of independence, it was from policy and reflection. I had often thought that the misfortunes which had befallen other travellers in Abyssinia arose from the base estimation the people in general entertained of their rank, and the value of their persons. From this idea I resolved to adopt a contrary behaviour. I was going to a court where there was a king of kings, whose throne was surrounded by a number of high-minded, proud, hereditary, punctilious nobility. It was impossible, therefore, too much lowliness and humility could please there.
Mr Murray, the ambassador at Constantinople, in the firman obtained from the grand signior, had qualified me with the distinction of Bey-Adzè, which means, not an English nobleman (a peer) but a noble Englishman, and he had added likewise, that I was a servant of the king of Great Britain. All the letters of recommendation, very many and powerful, from Cairo and Jidda, had constantly echoed this to every part to which they were addressed. They announced that I was not a man, such as ordinarily came to them, to live upon their charity, but had ample means of my own, and each professed himself guarantee of that fact, and that they themselves on all occasions were ready to provide for me, by answering my demands.
The only request of these letters was safety and protection to my person. It was mentioned that I was a physician, to introduce a conciliatory circumstance, that I was above practising for gain. That all I did was from the fear of God, from charity, and the love of mankind. I was a physician in the city, a soldier in the field, a courtier every where, demeaning myself, as conscious that I was not unworthy of being a companion to the first of their nobility, and the king’s stranger and guest, which is there a character, as it was with eastern nations of old, to which a certain sort of consideration is due. It was in vain to compare myself with them in any kind of learning, as they have none; music they have as little; in eating and drinking they were indeed infinitely my superiors; but in one accomplishment that came naturally into comparison, which was horsemanship, I studiously established my superiority.
My long residence among the Arabs had given me more than ordinary facility in managing the horse; I had brought my own saddle and bridle with me, and, as the reader will find, bought my horse of the Baharnagash in the first days of my journey, such a one as was necessary to carry me, and him I trained carefully, and studied from the beginning. The Abyssinians, as the reader will hereafter see, are the worst horsemen in the world. Their horses are bad, not equal to our Welsh or our Scotch galloways. Their furniture is worse. They know not the use of fire-arms on horseback; they had never seen a double-barrelled gun, nor did they know that its effect was limited to two discharges, but that it might have been fired on to infinity. All this gave me an evident superiority.
To this I may add, that, being in the prime of life, of no ungracious figure, having an accidental knack, which is not a trifle, of putting on the dress, and speaking the language easily and gracefully, I cultivated with the utmost assiduity the friendship of the fair sex, by the most modest, respectful distant attendance, and obsequiousness in public, abating just as much of that in private as suited their humour and inclinations. I soon acquired a great support from these at court; jealousy is not a passion of the Abyssinians, who are in the contrary extreme, even to indifference.
Besides the money I had with me, I had a credit of L.400 upon Yousef Cabil, governor of Jidda. I had another upon a Turkish merchant there. I had strong and general recommendations, if I should want supplies, upon Metical Aga, first minister to the sherriffe of Mecca. This, well managed, was enough; but when I met my countrymen, the captains of the English ships from India, they added additional strength to my finances; they would have poured gold upon me to facilitate a journey they so much desired upon several accounts. Captain Thornhill of the Bengal Merchant, and Captain Thomas Price of the Lion, took the conduct of my money-affairs under their direction. Their Saraf, or broker, had in his hands all the commerce that produced the revenues of Abyssinia, together with great part of the correspondence of the east; and, by a lucky accident for me, Captain Price staid all winter with the Lion at Jidda; nay, so kind and anxious was he as to send over a servant from Jidda on purpose, upon a report having been raised that I was slain by the usurper Socinios, though it was only one of my servants, and the servant of Metical Aga, who were murdered by that monster, as is said, with his own hand. Twice he sent over silver to me when I had plenty of gold, and wanted that metal only to apply it in furniture and workmanship. I do not pretend to say but sometimes these supplies failed me, often by my negligence in not applying in proper time, sometimes by the absence of merchants, who were all Mahometans, constantly engaged in business and in journies, and more especially on the king’s retiring to Tigré, after the battle of Limjour, when I was abandoned during the usurpation of the unworthy Socinios. It was then I had recourse to Petros and the Greeks, but more for their convenience than my own, and very seldom from necessity. This opulence enabled me to treat upon equal footing, to do favours as well as to receive them.
Every mountebank-trick was a great accomplishment there, such as making squibs, crackers, and rockets. There was no station in the country to which by these accomplishments I might not have pretended, had I been mad enough to have ever directed my thoughts that way; and I am certain, that in vain I might have solicited leave to return, had not a melancholy despondency, the amor patriæ, seized me, and my health so far declined as apparently to threaten death; but I was not even then permitted to leave Abyssinia till under a very solemn oath I promised to return.
This manner of conducting myself had likewise its disadvantages. The reader will see the times, without their being pointed out to him, in the course of the narrative. It had very near occasioned me to be murdered at Masuah, but it was the means of preserving me at Gondar, by putting me above being insulted or questioned by priests, the fatal rock upon which all other European travellers had split: it would have occasioned my death at Sennaar, had I not been so prudent as to disguise and lay aside the independent carriage in time. Why should I not now speak as I really think, or why be guilty of ingratitude which my heart disclaims. I escaped by the providence and protection of heaven; and so little store do I set upon the advantage of my own experience, that I am satisfied, were I to attempt the same journey again, it would not avail me a straw, or hinder me from perishing miserably, as others have done, though perhaps a different way.