If the situation of these Macrobii in Ptolemy did not put it past dispute that they were Shangalla, we should hesitate much at the characteristic of the nation; that they were long livers; none of these nations are so; I scarcely remember an example fairly vouched of a man past sixty. But there is one circumstance that I think might have fairly led Herodotus into this mistake; some of the Shangalla kill their sick, weak, and aged people; there are others that honour old age, and protect it. The Macrobii, I suppose, were of this last kind, who certainly, therefore, had many old men, more than the others.
I shall now just mention one other observation tending to illustrate a passage of ancient history.
Hanno, in his Periplus, remarks, that, while sailing along the coast of Africa, close by the shore, and probably near the low country called Kolla, inhabited by the kind of people we have been just describing, he found an universal silence to prevail the whole day, without any appearance of man or beast: on the contrary, at night, he saw a number of fires, and heard the sound of music and dancing. This has been laughed at as a fairy tale by people who affect to treat Hanno’s fragment as spurious; for my own part, I will not enter into the controversy.
A very great genius, (in some matters, perhaps, the greatest that ever wrote, and in every thing that he writes highly respectable) M. de Montesqieu, is perfectly satisfied that this Periplus[86] of Hanno is genuine; and it is a great pleasure again to endeavour to obviate any doubt concerning the authenticity of the work in this second passage, as I have before done in another.
In countries, such as those that we have been now describing, and such as Hanno was then sailing by, when he made the remark, there is no twilight. The stars, in their full brightness, are in possession of the whole heavens, when in an instant the sun appears without a harbinger, and they all disappear together. We shall say, at sun-rising the thermometer is from 48° to 60°; at 3 o’clock in the afternoon it is from 100° to 115°; an universal relaxation, a kind of irresistible languor and aversion to all action takes possession both man and beast; the appetite fails, and sleep and quiet are the only things the mind is capable of desiring, or the body of enduring: cattle, birds, and beasts all flock to the shade, and to the neighbourhood of running streams, or deep stagnant pools, and there, avoiding the effects of the scorching sun, pant in quiet and inaction. From the same motive, the wild beast stirs not from his cave; and for this, too, he has an additional reason, because the cattle he depends upon for his prey do not stroll abroad to feed; they are asleep and in safety, for with them are their dogs and their shepherds.
But no sooner does the sun set, than a cold night instantly succeeds a burning day; the appetite immediately returns; the cattle spread themselves abroad to feed, and pass quickly out of the shepherds sight into the reach of a multitude of beasts seeking for their prey. Fires, the only remedy, are everywhere lighted by the shepherds to keep these at a respectful distance; and dancing, singing, and music at once exhilarate the mind, and contribute, by alarming the beasts of prey, to keep their flocks in safety, and prevent the bad effects of severe cold[87]. This was the cause of the observation Hanno made in sailing along the coast, and it was true when he made it: just the same may be observed still, and will be, so long as the climate and inhabitants are the same.
I have been more particular in the history of this extraordinary nation, because I had, by mere accident, an opportunity of informing myself fully and with certainty concerning it; and, as it is very improbable that such an opportunity will occur again to any European, I hope it will not be ungratefully received.
I shall only add an answer to a very obvious question which may occur. Why is it that, in this country, nothing that would make bread will grow? Is it from the ignorance of the inhabitants in not choosing the proper seasons, or is it the imperfection of the soil? To this I answer, Certainly the latter. For the inhabitants of Ras el Feel were used to plow and sow, and did constantly eat bread; but the grain was produced ten or fifteen miles off upon the sides of the mountains of Abyssinia, where every certain number of soldiers had small farms allowed them for that purpose by government; but still they could never bring up a crop in the Mazaga; and the progress of the miscarriage was this: Before the month of May all that black earth was rent into great chasms, trode into dust, and ventilated with hot winds, so as to be a perfect caput mortuum, incapable of any vegetation. Upon the first sprinkling of rain the chasms are filled up, and the whole country resembles dry garden-mould newly dug up. As the sun advances the rains increase; there is no time to be lost now; this is the season for sowing; let us suppose wheat. In one night’s time, while the wheat is swelling in the ground, up grows an immense quantity of indigenous natural grass, that, having sowed itself last year, has lain ever since in a natural matrix, ready to start at the most convenient season. Before the wheat, or any grain soever can appear, this grass has shot up so high and so thick as absolutely to choke it. Suppose it was possible to hoe or weed it, the grass will again overtop the grain before it is an inch from the ground. Say it could be again hoed or cleared, by this time the rains are so continual, the black earth becomes a perfect mire. The rain increases, and the grain rots without producing any crop.
The same happens to millet, or Indian corn; the rain rots the plant which is thrown down by the wind. It is equally destroyed if sown at the end of the rains; the grass grows up, wherever the ground is cleared, in a greater proportion, if possible, than in the beginning of the year; and the rain ceasing abruptly, and the sun beginning to be intensely hot the very day it passes the zenith, the earth is reduced to an impalpable powder, whilst the grain and plant die without ever shewing a tendency to germinate.
We left the king, Oustas, after detecting a conspiracy, ready to fall upon some settlement of Shangalla. This he executed with great success, and surrounded a large part of the nation called Baasa, encamped under the trees suspecting no danger. He put the grown people to the sword, and took a prodigious number of children of both sexes captive. He was intending also to push his conquest farther among these savages, when he was called to Gondar by the death of his prime minister and confident, Ras Fasa Christos.
Besides his attention to hunting and government, the king had a very great taste for architecture, which, in Abyssinia, is a very popular one, though scarcely any thing is built but churches. In the season that did not permit him to be in the field, he bestowed a great deal of leisure and money this way; and he was, at this time, busy erecting a magnificent church to the Nativity, about a mile below Gondar, on the small river Kahha.
But the season of hunting returning before he had finished it, he left it to repair to Bet Malo, a place in the Kolla, where he had built a hunting-seat, not far distant from the Shangalla, called Baasa. Here he had a most successful hunting-match of the buffalo, rhinoceros, and elephant, in which he often put himself in great danger, and distinguished himself in dexterity and horsemanship greatly above any of his court. He returned upon news, that persons, whom he had secretly employed, had apprehended Betwudet Basilé, and his son Claudius, who had escaped when the last conspirators were seized. Both these he sentenced immediately to lose their eyes.
These hunting-matches, so punctually observed, and so eagerly followed by a man already past the flower of his youth, had, in their first appearance, nothing but sound policy. The king’s title was avowedly a faulty one; and the many conspiracies that had been formed had shewn him the nobility were not all of them disposed to bear his yoke; nothing then was more political than to keep a considerable number of them employed in field-exercises, to be informed of their inclinations, and to attach them to his person by favours. At the head of this little, but very active army, he was ready in a moment to fall upon the disaffected, before they could collect strength sufficient for resistance. Time, however, shewed this was not entirely the reason of these continual intervals of absence for so long a time in the Kolla.
Notwithstanding the misfortune that had befallen the French ambassador, M. du Roule, at Sennaar, in the reign of Yasous I. and Tecla Haimanout his son, under Baady el Ahmer, there had still remained below, in Atbara, some of those missionaries who had courage and address enough to attempt the journey into Abyssinia, and they succeeded in it. Oustas had probably been privy to their arrival in Yasous’s time, and had, equally with him, a favourable opinion of the Romish religion.
These missionaries, though Yasous was now dead, were perfectly well received by Oustas; he had given them in charge to Ain Egzie, an old and loyal servant of Yasous, and governor of Walkayt. He had placed also with them an Abyssinian priest, who had been in Jerusalem, and was well-affected to the Romish faith, to be their interpreter, stay with them always, and manage their interests, while he himself, stealing frequently from the hunting-matches, heard mass, and received the communion, returning back to his camp, as he flattered himself, unperceived. These meetings with the priests were not, however, so well concealed but that they came to the knowledge of many people about court, both seculars and clergy. But the king’s character, for severity and vigilance, made everybody confine their thoughts, whatever they were, within their own breasts.
The employment of this year was a short journey to Ibaba, a large market-town, where there is a royal residence, below Maitsha, on the west, or Gojam side of the Nile, from which it is about three days distance. From this he returned again, and went to Tcherkin, a small village in Kolla, beyond Ras el Feel, in the way to Sennaar, the principal abode of the elephant. But, in the first day’s hunting, Yared, master of his household, and a considerable favourite, being torn to pieces by one of these quadrupeds, he gave over the sport, and returned very sorrowful to bury him at Gondar, leaving three of his servants to execute a design he had formed against the Baasa in that neighbourhood.
From the constant interruptions Oustas had met with in all these hunting-matches, and his success, notwithstanding, whenever he had himself attended, the divining monks had prophesied his reign was to be short, and attended with much bloodshed; nor were they for once distant from the truth; for, in the month of January 1714, while he was over-looking the workmen building the church of Abba Antonius at Gondar, he was taken suddenly ill, and, suspecting some unwholesomeness or witchcraft in his palace, he ordered his tent to be pitched without the town till the apartments should be smoaked with gunpowder. But this was done so carelessly by his servants, that his house was burnt to the ground, which was looked upon as a very bad omen, and made a great impression upon the minds of the people.
The 27th of January it was generally understood that the king was dangerously ill, and that his complaint was every day increasing. Upon this the principal officers went, according to the usual custom, to condole with and comfort him. This was at least what they pretended. Their true errand, however, was pretty well known to be an endeavour to ascertain whether the sickness was of the kind likely to continue, till measures could be adopted with a degree of certainty to take the reins of government out of his hand.
The king easily divined the reason of their coming. Having had a good night, he used the strength that he had thereby acquired to rouse himself for a moment, to put on the appearance of health, and shew himself, as usual, engaged in his ordinary dispatch of business. The seeming good countenance of the king made their condolence premature. Some excuse, however, for so formal a visit, was necessary; but every apology was not safe. They adopted this, which they thought unexceptionable, that hearing he was sick, which they happily found he was not, they came to propose to him a thing equally proper whether he was sick or well; that he would, in time, settle the succession upon his son Fasil, then in the mountain of Wechné, as a means of quieting the minds of his friends, preventing bloodshed, and securing the crown to his family.
Oustas did the utmost to command himself upon this occasion, and to give them an answer such as suited a man in health who hoped to live many years. But it was now too late to play such a part; and, in spite of his utmost dissimulation, evident signs of decay appeared upon him, which his visitors conjectured would soon be past dissembling, and they agreed to stay with the king till the evening.
But the soldiers on guard, who heard the proposal of sending for Oustas’s son, and who really believed that these men spoke from their heart, and were in earnest, were violently discontented and angry at this proposal. They began to be weary of novelty, and longed for a king of the ancient royal family. As soon, therefore, as it was dark they entered Gondar, and called together the several regiments, or bodies of soldiers, which composed the king’s household. Having came to a resolution how they were to act, they returned to their quarters where they were upon guard, and meeting the great officers coming out of Oustas’s tent, where they, too, had probably agreed upon the same measure, though it was not known, the soldiers drew their swords, and slew them all, being seven in number. Among these were Betwudet Tamerté, and the Acab Saat; the one the principal lay-officer, the other the chief ecclesiastic in the king’s house.
This massacre seemed to be the signal for a general insurrection, in the course of which, part of the town was set on fire. But the soldiers, at their first meeting in the palace[88], had shut up the coronation-chamber, and the other royal apartments, and possessed themselves of the kettle-drum by which all proclamations were made at the gate, driving away, and rudely treating the multitude on every side. At last they brought out the drum, though it was yet night, and made this proclamation:—“David, son of our late king Yasous, is our king.” The tumult and disorder, nevertheless, still continued; during all which, it was very remarkable no one ever thought of offering an injury to Oustas.
While these things were passing at Gondar, a violent alarm had seized all the princes upon the mountain of Wechné. They had been treated with severity during Oustas’s whole reign. Their revenues had been with-held, or at least not regularly paid, and they had been reduced nearly to perish for want of the necessaries of life. When, therefore, the accounts of Oustas’s illness arrived, and that the principal people had proposed to name Fasil his son, then their fellow-prisoner, to succeed him, their fears no longer reminded them of the hardships of his father’s reign, as they expected utter extirpation as the only measure by which he could provide for his own security. Full of these fears, they agreed, with one consent, to let down from the mountain fifty princes of the greatest hopes, all in the prime of life, and therefore most capable of defending their own right, and securing the lives of those that remained upon the mountain, from the cruel treatment they must obviously expect if they fell into the hand of an usurper or stranger.
The brother of Betwudet Tamerté, who, with the six others, had been murdered before Oustas’s tent, was, at this time, guardian of the mountain of Wechné. His brother’s death, however, and the unsettled state of government, had so much weakened both his authority and attention, that he either did not choose, or was not able, to prevent the escape of these princes, all flying for their lives, and for the sake of preserving the ancient constitution of their country. And that this, and no other was their object, appeared the instant the danger was removed; for, as soon as the news that David was proclaimed at Gondar arrived at the mountain, all the princes returned of their own accord, excepting Bacuffa, younger brother to the king, who fled to the Galla, and lay concealed among them for a time.
On David’s arrival at Gondar, all the old misfortunes seemed to be forgotten. The joy of having the ancient royal line restored, got the better of those fears which first occasioned the interruption. The prisons were thrown open, and David was crowned the 30th of January 1714, amidst the acclamations of all ranks of people, and every demonstration of festivity and joy.
David was son of Yasous the Great, and consequently brother to the parricide Tecla Haimanout, but by another mother. At his coronation he was just twenty-one years of age, and took for his inauguration name Adebar Segued.
In all this time, however, Oustas was alive. Oustas was, indeed, sick, but still he was king; and yet it is surprising that David had been now nine days at Gondar, and no injury had been offered to Oustas, nor any escape attempted for him by his friends.
It was the 6th of February, the day before Lent, when, the king sent the Abuna Marcus, Itchegué Za Michael, with some of the great officers of state, to interrogate Oustas judicially, for form’s sake, as to his title to the crown. The questions proposed are very short and simple—“Who are you? What brought you here?” To these plain interrogatories, Oustas, then struggling with death, answered, however, as plainly, and without equivocation, “Tell my king David, that true it is I have made myself king, as much as one can be that is not of the royal family; for I am but a private man, son of a subject, Kasmati Delba Yasous: all I beg of the king is to give me a little time, and let me die with sickness, as I shortly shall, without putting me to torment or pain.”
On the 10th day of February, that is four days after the interrogation, Oustas died, but whether of a violent or natural death is not known. The historian of his reign, a cotemporary writer, says, some reported that he died of an amputation of his leg by order of the king; others, that he was strangled; but that most people were of opinion that he died of sickness; and this I think the most probable, for had the king been earnestly set upon his death, he would not have allowed so much time to pass, after his coronation, before his rival was interrogated; nor was there any reason to allow him four days after his confession. David’s moderation after the death, moreover, seems to render this still more credible; for he ordered his body to be buried in the church of the Nativity, which he had himself built, with all the honours and public ceremonies due to his rank as a nobleman and subject, who had been guilty of no crime, instead of ordering his body to be hewn in pieces, and scattered along the ground without burial, to be eat by the dogs; the invariable punishment, unless in this one instance, of high-treason in this country.
Posterity, regarding his merit more than his title, have, however, kept his name still among the list of kings; and tradition, doing him more justice still than history, has ranked him among the best that ever reigned in Abyssinia.
DAVID IV.
From 1714 to 1719.Convocation of the Clergy—Catholic Priests executed—A second Convocation—Clergy insult the King—His severe Punishment—King dies of Poison.
The moderation of the king, both before and after the death of Oustas, and perhaps some other favourable appearances now unknown to us, set the monks, the constant pryers into futurity, upon prophecying that the reign of this prince was to be equal in length to that of his father Yasous the Great, and that it was to be peaceable, full of justice and moderation, without execution, or effusion of civil blood.
David, immediately upon his accession, appointed Fit-Auraris Agnè, Ozoro Keduste’s brother[89], his Betwudet, and Abra Hezekias his matter of the household; and was proceeding to fill up the inferior posts of government, when he was interrupted by the clamours of a multitude of monks demanding a convocation of the clergy.
These assemblies, however often solicited, are never called in the reign of vigorous princes, but by the special order of the sovereign, who grants or refuses them purely from his own free-will. They are, however, particularly expected at the accession of a new prince, upon any apprehension of heresy, or any novelty or abuse in church-government.
The arrival of a new-Abuna from Egypt is also a very principal reason for the convocation. These assemblies are very numerous. Many of the most discreet members of the church absent themselves purposely. On the other hand, the monks, who, by vows, have bound themselves to the most painful austerities and sufferings; those that devote themselves to pass their lives in the deep and unwholesome valleys of the country; hermits that starve on the points of cold rocks; others that live in deserts surrounded with, and perpetually exposed to wild beasts; in a word, the whole tribe of fanatics, false prophets, diviners, and dreamers, people who affect to see and foreknow what is in future to happen, by living in perfect ignorance of what is passing at the present; people in constant habits of dirt and nastiness, naked, or covered with hair; in short, a collection of monsters, scarcely to be described or conceived, compose an ecclesiastical assembly in Abyssinia, and are the leaders of an ignorant and furious populace, who adore them as saints, and are always ready to support them in some violation of the laws of the country, or of humanity, to which, by their customs and manner of life, their very first appearance shews they have been long strangers.
David, however averse to these assemblies, could not decently refuse them, now a new prince was set on the throne, a new Abuna was come from Egypt, and a complaint was ready to be brought that the church was in danger. The assembly met in the usual place before the palace. The Itchegué, or head of the monks of Debra Libanos, was ready with a complaint, which he preferred to the king. He stated it was notorious, but offered to prove it if denied, that three Romish priests, with an Abyssinian for their interpreter, were then established in Walkayt, and, for several years, had been there maintained, protected, and consulted by the late king Oustas, who had often assisted at the celebration of mass as solemnized by the church of Rome.
David was a rigid adherent to the church of Alexandria, and educated by his mother in the tenets of the monks of Saint Eustathius, that is, the most declared enemies of every thing approaching to the tenets of the church of Rome. He was consequently, not by inclination, neither was he by duty, obliged to undertake the defence of measures adopted by Oustas, of which he was besides ignorant, having been confined in the mountain of Wechné. He ordered, therefore, the missionaries, and their interpreter, whose name was Abba Gregorius, to be apprehended.
These unfortunate people were accordingly produced before the most prejudiced and partial of all tribunals. Abba Masmarè and Adug Tesfo were adduced to interrogate and to interpret to them, as they understood the Arabic, having been at Cairo and Jerusalem. The trial neither was, nor was intended to be long. The first question put was a very direct one; Do you, or do you not, receive the council of Chalcedon as a rule of faith? and, Do you believe that Leo the pope lawfully and regularly presided at it, and conducted it? To this the prisoners plainly answered, That they looked upon the council of Chalcedon as the fourth general council, and received it as such, and as a rule of faith: that they did believe pope Leo lawfully and regularly presided at it, as being head of the Catholic church, successor to St Peter, and Christ’s vicar upon earth. Upon this a general shout was heard from the whole assembly; and the fatal cry, “Stone them.”—“Whoever throws not three stones, he is accursed, and an enemy to Mary,” immediately followed.
One priest only, distinguished for piety and learning among his countrymen, and one of the chief men in the assembly, with great vehemence declared, they were tried partially and unfairly, and condemned unjustly. But his voice was not heard amidst the clamours of such a multitude; and the monks were accordingly by the judges condemned to die. Ropes were instantly thrown about their necks, and they were dragged to a place behind the church of Abbo, in the way to Tedda, where they were, according to their sentence, stoned to death, suffering with a patience and resignation equal to the first martyrs.
The justice, however, which we owe to the memory of the deceased M. du Roule, must always leave a fear in every Christian mind, that, spotted as these missionaries were with the horrid crime of the premeditated, unprovoked murder of that ambassador, the indifference they testified at the approach, and in the immediate suffering of death, had its origin rather in hardness of heart than in the quietness of their consciences. Many fanatics have been known to die, glorying in having perpetrated the most horrid crimes to which the sentence of eternal damnation is certainly annexed in the book before them.
I have often, both on purpose and by accident, passed by this place, where three large, and one small pile of stones, cover the bodies of these unfortunate sufferers; and, with many heavy reflections, upon my own danger, I have often wondered how these three priests, of whatever nation they were, passed unnoticed among the number of their fraternity, whose memory is honoured with long panegyrics by the Romish writers of those times, as destined one day to appear in the kalendar. Though those that compose the long list of Tellez died with piety and resignation, they were surely guilty in the way they almost all were engaged, contrary to the laws and constitution of the country, in actions and designs that can be fairly qualified by no other name than that of treason, while no such political meddling out of their profession ever was reproached to these three, even by their enemies.
Tellez says not a word of them; Le Grande, a zealous Catholic writer of these times, but little; though he publishes an Arabic letter to consul Maillet, which mentions their names, their sufferings, and other circumstances attending them. I shall, therefore, take the liberty of offering my conjecture, as I think this silence, or the suppression of a fact, gives me a title to do; but shall first produce the letter of Elias Enoch, upon which I found my judgment.
Translation of an Arabic Letter wrote to M. de Maillet.
“After having assured M. de Maillet, the consul, of my respects, and of the continuation of my prayers for his health, as being a gentleman venerable for his merits, distinguished by his knowledge and great penetration, of a noble birth, always beneficent, and addicted to pious actions, (may God preserve his life to that degree of honour due to so respectable a person), I now write you from the town of Mocha. I left Abyssinia in the year 1718, and came to this town of Mocha in extreme poverty, or rather absolutely destitute. God has assisted me: I give praise to him for his bounty, and always remain much obliged to you. What follows is all that I can inform you as touching the news of Abyssinia. King Yasous is long since dead: his son, Tecla Haimanout, having seized upon the kingdom by force, caused his father to be assassinated. This king Yasous, having given me leave to go to Sennaar, furnished me with a letter addressed to the king there, in which he desired him to put no obstacles in the way of du Roule the French ambassador’s journey, but to suffer him to enter Ethiopia. He also gave me another letter addressed to the basha and officers of Grand Cairo; and another letter to the ambassador himself, by which he signified to him that he might enter into Ethiopia without fear. Accordingly I had departed with these letters for Sennaar; but king Tecla Haimanout, son of king Yasous, having taken possession of the kingdom while I was yet in Abyssinia, I returned and delivered to him the letters which had been given me by his father. It was now three months since Tecla Haimanout had been upon the throne; he approved of the letters, and caused them to be transcribed in his own name; and ordered me to go and join du Roule the ambassador, and accompany him back again to Gondar. King Yasous had already sent an officer to meet the ambassador at Sennaar; and he had been gone six months without my knowledge; but that officer, having trifled away his time in trading, did not enter Sennaar till that king had caused the ambassador to be murdered, together with those that were with him. As for me, not knowing what had happened, I was advancing with the orders of Tecla Haimanout, when, being now within three days journey of Sennaar, I heard of the ambassador’s death, and that of his companions; and being terrified at this, I returned into Abyssinia to let Tecla Haimanout know what the king of Sennaar had done. Immediately upon hearing of this, Tecla Haimanout formed a resolution to declare war against the king of Sennaar, but was soon after slain in a mutiny of the soldiers. He reigned two years. Tifilis, brother of Yasous, succeeded him, and reigned three years and three months. Oustas, nephew of king Yasous, succeeded Tifilis, and usurped the kingdom, of which he was actually prime minister, being son of a sister of Yasous. Oustas was dethroned, and died soon after. David, son of Yasous, succeeded him, and reigned five years and five months. The friars, who arrived in Ethiopia in the reign of Oustas, were stoned to death, upon the succession of David to the throne, by those that were of the party of David. A son of Michael, whom he had by a slave, aged only six years, was stoned with him. It was the fourth son he had. I made Yasous believe that the religion of the French was the same with that of Ethiopia,” &c. &c.
From this letter, we see a boy of six years old, son of one of these priests or friars, was stoned to death with them; and his heap of stones appears with those of the others. It was, indeed, a common test of the people suspected to be priests, who stole into Abyssinia, to offer them women, their vows being known, and that they could not marry. I apprehend, to avoid detection, one at least of them had broken his vow of celibacy and chastity, and that this child was the consequence, but not the only one, as Enoch says, in his letter, he had three others; and this probably was the reason why the Catholics of those times had consigned their merit to oblivion, rather than record it with their failings.
For although we know that there were friars who had been in Ethiopia since the time of Oustas, we should not have been informed who they were, had it not been for a small sheet, published at Rome in the year 1774, by a capuchin priest called Theodosius Volpi, sent to me by my learned and worthy friend the honourable Daines Barrington. From this we find, that these three were, Liberato de Wies, apostolical prefect in Austria; Michael Pius of Zerbe, in the province of Padua; and Samuel de Beumo, of the Milanese. The account of their death is the same as already given, though the publisher suppresses the stoning of the child, and the existence of the three other, fruits of the seraphic mission, through the endeavours of father Michael Pius of Zerbe, of the province of Milan. The child, too, stoned to death with his father, was six years old, and was, as Elias says, fourth son of Michael; and it was in 1714 this catastrophe happened, so that this will bring these fathers entrance into Nubia about the time of the murder of M. du Roule: so consistent with every crime is fanaticism and false religion.
The barbarous monks, gratified in the first instance, would not be contented without extending their vengeance to Abba Gregorius, the Abyssinian priest, the interpreter. But David, who found upon trial that, in going to attend the priests in Walkayt, he had only obeyed the express command of Oustas, then his sovereign, absolutely refused to suffer him to be either tried or punished, but dismissed him, without further censure or question, to his native country.
While David was thus employed at Gondar, news were brought to him that his brother Bacuffa had left the Galla, and was then in a small town in Begemder, called Wetan. It was this prince who, together with fifty others of the royal family, were let down from the mountain of Wechné, upon Oustas’s son being proposed, and he alone refused to return upon his brother’s accession to the throne. David sent Azaleffi, Guebra Mehedin, and Badjerund Welled de l’Oul, to Wetan, where they apprehended Bacuffa by surprise, and lodged him in the mountain of Wechné, after having cut off a very small part of the tip of his nose, which was scarcely discernible when he came to the throne.
Kasmati Georgis, had been banished to the mountain in the reign of the late king, where he had contracted an intimate friendship with David. He had also married a sister of Ozoro Mamet, by whom Yasous had several children, particularly one Welleta Georgis, a prince then of years to govern, and confined to the mountain. David, on his coming to the throne, did not forget his old friendship on the mountain; and, passing by Emfras, he sent to Wechné to bring down Kasmati Georgis to Arringo, one of the king’s palaces in Begemder, where he intended to pass the summer. On his return he gave him the government of Gojam; and his favourite Agné, his uncle, dying at this time, very much regretted, Georgis was also created Betwudet in his place.
This year Abuna Marcus died; and his successor, Abuna Christodulus, arriving the third day of November, this made the calling of another assembly of the clergy absolutely necessary, although, from the humour the last was in, the whole time of their meeting, the king was very little inclined to it.
The monks in Abyssinia, as I have often said, are divided into two bodies, those of Debra Libanos and those of Abba Eustathius. Some have imagined that the difference between these two bodies arises from a dispute about two natures in Christ. But this is from misinformation; for, were a dispute to arise about the two natures in Christ, each party would declare the other a heretic; but at present a few equivocal words, used to define the mode and moment of our Saviour’s incarnation, though neither opinion is thought heretical[90], have the effect to make these two sects enemies all their lives.
The Abuna is the head of the Abyssinian church; yet, as he is known to be a slave of the Mahometans, upon his first arrival, and permission obtained from the king, the assembly meets in a large outer court, or square, before the palace, where he is interrogated, and where he declares which of the two opinions he adopts. If he has been properly advised, he declares for the ruling and strongest party; though sometimes he is determined, by the address of those about him, to side with the weakest; and very often, if he has had no instruction on his arrival, he does not know what this reference means; for no trace of such dispute exists among his brethren in Cairo, from whence he came. He is, moreover, a stranger to the language, and the words containing either opinion, which, for shortness sake, are made to mean a great deal more than they at first seem to import; and, whether freely or literally translated, are equally unintelligible to a foreigner. After the Abuna has declared his choice, this is announced by beat of drum to the people, and is called Nagar Haimanout, or, the Proclamation of the Faith. The only ordinary effect this declaration has, is to make the person who is at the head of one party an adversary to him who is the head of the other, all his life after.
The king at his accession makes his declaration also. The clergy maintain, that he should do this in an assembly called for that purpose, though the king denies that there is any necessity for the clergy to be present; but he considers it as his privilege to choose his own time and place, and announces it to the people, by proclamation, at what time, and in what manner, he thinks most convenient.
Although David had given his permission to assemble the clergy to hear the Abuna’s declaration, he did not think himself bound to assist at it, and, therefore, he sent to the monks of Debra Libanos, and those of Abba Eustathius, to go to the Abuna with Betwudet Georgis, who should interrogate the Abuna, and report the answer to the king, who thereupon would order it to be proclaimed to the people. The monks of Debra Libanos refused this, as they did not consider Georgis as indifferent, being known to be a staunch Eustathian. They declared, therefore, they would neither hear nor regard what the Abuna said, unless it was in the king’s presence; and this was just what David was resolved not to humour them in.
Betwudet Georgis, the great officers of state, and most of the people of consideration about Gondar, waited upon the Abuna as the king had commanded; and the Betwudet having desired him to make his profession, he would only give this evasive answer, That his faith was in all respects the same as that of Abba Marcos and Abba Sanuda, the ancient and orthodox Abunas.
This answer left every party at liberty to imagine that the Abuna was their own. But this evasion did not content the king, who therefore ordered the Betwudet, without taking further notice of the Abuna, to make proclamation in terms of the profession of the monks of Abba Eustathius. This occasioned great heats among the monks of Debra Libanos. They ran all with one accord to the Itchegué’s house, for he is their general, or chief of their convent, and here they came to the most violent resolutions, declaring that they would die either together, or man by man, in support of their privileges and the freedom of their assemblies. From the Itchegué’s house they ran to the Abuna’s, without soliciting or receiving any permission from the king; and, upon interrogation, they succeeded with the Abuna to the height of their wishes; for he answered in the precise words of their profession—“One God, of the Father alone, united to a body perfectly human, consubstantial with ours, and by that union becoming the Messiah;” in direct opposition to what was proclaimed by the king’s order at the gate of the palace the day before—Perfect God and perfect man, by the union one Christ, whose body is composed of a precious substance, called Bahery, not consubstantial with ours, or derived from his mother.
Had they stopt here it had been well; but the victory was too great, too unexpected, and complete, to admit of their sitting quietly down without a triumph. They returned, therefore, from the Abuna’s, frantic with joy, shouting, and singing, and more peculiarly one kind of song, or hallelujah, used always upon victories obtained over infidels. As they passed the door of the king’s palace, some of the officers of the household, Azage Zakery, Azage Tecla Haimanout, and Badjerund Welleta David, moderate men, lovers of peace, and inclined to no party, endeavoured to persuade them to content themselves with what they had done, to disperse, and each go to his home, before some mischief overtook them. But they were too high-minded. They redoubled their songs; and, in this manner, again assembled in the Itchegué’s house to deliberate on what further they were to attempt; when one of the monks, a prophet, or dreamer, declared, “That God had opened his eyes, and that he then saw a cherub with a flaming sword guarding the Itchegué’s gate:” with such a centinel they concluded that they were perfectly safe from any attempts of man.
In the mean time, however, the king was violently affected at the seditious behaviour of the monks; nor did he hesitate a moment in what manner he was to punish it. As they had employed the song which was sung only for victories obtained over infidels, by which they meant to allude particularly to the king, he detached a body of Pagan Galla to punish them; having surrounded the Itchegué’s house, where the monks were assembled, they forced open the gate, (and the cherub with the flaming sword not interfering) they fell, sword in hand, upon the unarmed priests, and in an instant laid above a hundred of the principal of them dead upon the floor. They then sallied out with their bloody weapons into the street, and hewed to pieces those that attended the procession, and who were still diverting themselves with their song. Gondar now appeared like a town taken by storm; every street was covered with the dead, and dying; and this massacre continued till next day at noon, when, by proclamation, the king ordered it to cease.
David, now satisfied as to the priests, thought he owed to the Abuna a mortification for his double-dealing. He sent, therefore, the soldiers to take him out of his house, and bring him to the gate of the palace, where the poor wretch, half dead with fear, expected every moment to fall by the bloody hands of the Djawi. Having enjoyed his panic some time, the king ordered him to be placed close beside the kettle-drum, and a profession of faith was made in the royal presence, and announced by beat of drum to the people, agreeing in every respect to that published the first day by Betwudet Georgis, and directly contradicting what he had said with his own mouth to the monks of Debra Libanos, which was the occasion of the riot.
This bloody, indiscriminate massacre had comprehended too many men of worth and distinction not to occasion great discontent among the principal people both within and without the palace. Conspiracies against the king were now everywhere openly talked of, the fruits of which soon appeared. David fell sick, and those about him endeavoured to persuade him that it was the remains of an injury which he had lately received from a fall off his horse. But, upon the meeting of a council on the 9th of March 1719, it was discovered and proved, that Kasmati Laté and Ras Georgis had employed Kutcho, keeper of the palace, to give a strong poison to the king, which he had taken that morning from the hands of a Mahometan. Ras Georgis was then brought before the council, and scarcely denied the fact; upon which his only son was ordered to be hewn to pieces before his face, and immediately after the father’s eyes were pulled out. Kutcho, keeper of the palace, and the Mahometan who gave the poison, were hewn to pieces with swords before the gate of the palace, and their mangled bodies thrown to the dogs. The king died that evening in great agony.
The king’s favourite, Betwudet Georgis, found himself now in a most dangerous situation. David his protector was dead, and he was left now alone to answer for those bloody measures of which he was universally believed to be the adviser. It was absolutely necessary, therefore, if possible, to secure a successor of David’s own family, who might stop the prosecutions against him for steps the king had adopted as his own, and as such had carried into execution.
We have already observed, that, when banished to the mountain of Wechné by Oustas, he had contracted there, first a friendship with David, and, at the same time, with another prince, Ayto Welled Georgis, who was son to Yasous by Ozoro Mamet, whose sister Georgis had married, and consequently was uncle to Ayto Welleta Georgis, as having married his aunt, sister to Ozoro Mamet. When this prince now arrived at manhood, he knew himself perfectly secure; and, therefore, a number of the men in power being then assembled at his house, he lost no time, but surrounded it with a body of soldiers. He proposed to them Welled Georgis as immediate successor to David. The people present, seeing themselves in the soldiers hands, and convinced from the recent examples, that Georgis was not very tender in the use of them, in appearance chearfully, and without hesitation, approved of the Betwudet’s choice; and Lika Jonathan, one of the chief civil judges, performed the office of crier, proclaiming with an audible voice, “Ayto Welled Georgis, brother to our late king David, son of our great king Yasous, he is now our king. Mourn for the king that is dead, but rejoice with the king that is alive.” This is the ordinary stile of the proclamation. Mutual congratulations and promises passed among the members of the meeting, but with very different resolutions.
All the company, escorted by a body of archers, and another of fuzileers, with Betwudet Georgis at their head, repaired to the great place before the palace to make the same proclamation by beat of drum that they had done in the Betwudet’s house. They found the drum ready, and the whole body of the king’s household troops under arms, and drawn up before it. Upon the sight of their companions, the soldiers left the Betwudet, and fell into a proper place reserved vacant for them by their brethren. Without loss of time the drum was beat, and a proclamation made, “Bacuffa, son of Yasous, is our king! Mourn for the dead, and rejoice with the living.” Loud acclamations from the people were echoed back again by the soldiers, and Bacuffa’s name was received with universal acclamations. Some of the principal people then went to the council-chamber, and sent proper officers, with a good body of troops, to escort the king from Wechné.
Upon their arrival they found the sentiments of the princes upon the election were widely different from those testified by the people. They all to a man declared their dissent from that election. They upbraided Bacuffa for his brutal manners; for his violent, unsociable, unrelenting temper, from the which, they said, they had the cruelest consequences to apprehend; and, indeed, it was not without great reason that they made these remonstrances; for Bacuffa, when he escaped from the mountain, fled for refuge among the Galla, and received there a very strong tincture of the savage manners of that nation, which neither those of Gondar nor the army could have an opportunity to judge of. Resolute, active, and politic, he was very well formed to hold the reins of government in unsettled times; but his temper of itself exceedingly suspicious, and the little regard he had for the life of man, made his whole reign (as it was feared) one continued tragedy. So that, notwithstanding the goodness of his understanding, and many acts of wisdom and justice, he is considered as a bloody, merciless tyrant, and his memory regarded with the greatest detestation.
On the first news of the insurrection of the princes on Wechné, Kasmati Amha Yasous, governor of Begemder, marched with his whole force and encamped under the mountain. He then received Bacuffa, as king, having rescued him from the hands of his relations; and, in order to obviate, as much as possible, any future trouble, he obliged the different branches of the royal family to a reconciliation with each other, making Bacuffa, on the one side, swear that he was not to remember nor revenge any injury or affront received upon the mountain; and them on the mountain swear also, that they would forget all old disagreements, consider Bacuffa as their king, and not create him any trouble in his reign by escapes, or other rebellious practices.
As it was then night, Bacuffa staid in the house of Azage Assarat, and the next morning came to Serbraxos, whence he sent to the monks of Tedda to meet him there. From Tedda he proceeded to Gondar, where he was met by the Abuna and Itchegué amidst the acclamations of a prodigious number of people.
BACUFFA.
From 1719 to 1729.Bloody Reign—Exterminates the Conspirators—Counterfeits Death—Becomes very popular.
Honest men, who loved their country, saw the dangerous situation it was then in. Every day had produced instances of a growing indifference to that form of government which, from the earliest times, they had looked upon as sacred; and upon every slight and unreasonable disgust a person of consequence thought he had met with, a party was immediately formed, and nothing less was agreed on than directly imbruing their hands in the blood of their sovereign.
A prince was necessary who had qualities of mind proper to enable him to put a stop to these enormities before they involved the state in one scene of anarchy and ruin. Bacuffa was thought to answer these expectations; and, in the end, he was found to exceed them. Silent, secret, and unfathomable in his designs, surrounded by soldiers who were his own slaves, and by new men of his own creation, he removed those tyrants who opposed their sovereigns upon the smallest provocation. Conspiracy followed conspiracy, and rebellion; but all were defeated, as soon as they had birth, by the superior activity and address of the king.
I have said he was called Bacuffa by the Galla; but, in compliance with the custom of Abyssinia, already mentioned, he had assumed still two other names, which were, Atzham Georgis, his name of baptism, and Adebar Segued, which means “reverenced by the towns or inhabited places of the country,” given him at his inauguration. As for that of Bacuffa, which meant the inexorable, it was the less dishonourable from having been given him by impartial strangers from their own observation while he was yet in private life; his whole conduct afterwards shewed how justly.
The king has near his person an officer who is meant to be his historiographer. He is also keeper of his seal, and is obliged to make a journal of the king’s actions, good or bad, without comment of his own upon them. This, when the king dies, or at least soon after, is delivered to the council, who read it over, and erase every thing false in it; whilst they supply any material fact that may have been omitted, whether purposely or not. This would have been a very dangerous book to have been kept in Bacuffa’s time; and, accordingly, no person chose ever to run that risk; and the king’s particular behaviour afterwards had still the further effect, that nobody would supply this deficiency after his death, a general belief prevailing in Abyssinia that he is alive to this day, and will appear again in all his terrors. It is owing to this circumstance that we have nothing complete of this king’s reign; only a few anecdotes are preserved, some of them very odd ones. I shall only, for the present, choose such of those as lead me to the subject I have in hand.
Bacuffa was exceedingly fond of divinations, dreams, and prophecies, so are all the Abyssinians; but he imbibed an additional propensity to these, among the Pagans to whom he had fled. One day, when walking alone, he perceived a priest exceedingly attentive in observing the forms that little pieces of straw, cut to certain lengths, made upon a pool of water into which ran a small stream. From the combination of these in letters, or figures, as they chanced to fall, an answer is procured to the doubt proposed, which, if you believe these idlers, is perfectly infallible.
Bacuffa in disguise, dressed like a poor man, is said to have asked the priest after what he was inquiring. The priest answered, He was trying whether the king would have a son, and who should govern the kingdom after him. The king abode the investigation patiently; and the answer was, That he should have a son; but that a Welleta Georgis should govern the kingdom after him for thirty years, though that Welleta Georgis should be neither his son nor any descendant of his. Full of thought at this untoward prediction, he harboured it in his breast without communicating it to any one, and resolved to blast the hopes of every Welleta Georgis that should be so unfortunate as to stand within the possibility of reigning after him. Many innocent people of different parts disappeared from this unknown crime; and eleven princes on the mountain of Wechné, some say more, lost their lives for a name that is very common in Abyssinia, without one overt act of treason, or even a suspicion of what they were accused. A panic now struck all ranks of people, without terminating in any scheme of resistance; which sufficiently shewed that the king had succeeded in dissolving all confederacies among his subjects, and destroying radically that rebellious spirit which had operated so fatally in the last reigns.
It is a custom among the kings of Abyssinia, especially in intervals of peace, to disappear for a time, without any warning. Sometimes, indeed, one or two confidential servants, pretending to be busied in other affairs, attend at a distance, and keep their eye upon him, while, disguised in different manners, he goes like a stranger to those parts he intends to visit. In one of these private journeys, passing into Kuara, a province on the N. E. of Abyssinia, near the confines of Sennaar, Bacuffa happened, or counterfeited, to be seized by a fever, a common disease of that unwholesome country. He was then in a poor village belonging to servants of a man of distinction, whose house was on the top of the hill immediately above, in temperate and wholesome air. The hospitable landlord, upon the first hearing of the distress of a stranger, immediately removed him up to his house, where every attention that could be suggested by a charitable mind was bestowed upon his diseased guest, who presently recovered his former state of health, but not till the kind assistance and unwearied diligence of the beautiful daughter of the house had made the deepest impression upon him, and laid him under the greatest obligations.
The family consisted of five young men in the flower of their youth, and one daughter, whose name was Berhan Magass, the Glory of Grace, exceedingly beautiful, gentle, mild, and affable; of great understanding and prudence beyond her age; the darling, not only of her own family, but of all the neighbourhood.
Bacuffa recovering his health, returned speedily to the palace, which he entered privately at night, and appeared early next morning sitting in judgment, and hearing causes, which, with these princes, is the first public occupation of the day.
A messenger, with guards and attendants, was immediately sent to Kuara, and Berhan Magass hurried from her father’s house, she knew not why, but her surprise was carried to the utmost, by being presented and married to the king, no reply, condition, or stipulation being suffered. She gained, however, and preserved his confidence as long as he lived: not that Bacuffa valued himself upon constancy to one wife, more than the rest of his predecessors had done. He had, indeed, many mistresses, but with these he observed a very singular rule; he never took to his bed any one woman whatever, the fair Berhan Magass excepted, without her having been first so far intoxicated with wine or spirits as not to remember any thing that passed in conversation.
While Bacuffa was on his concealed journey to Kuara, a very dangerous conspiracy was forming at Gondar, under the immediate conduct of Ozoro Welleta Raphael, the king’s sister, a very ambitious woman, and of an unquiet, enterprising temper. Disgusted by her brother’s refusal of a gift of some crown lands which were then vacant, and without any owners, she thought no vengeance adequate to the affront, but dethroning Bacuffa. With this view she engaged several men of power in her interest, and particularly the black servants of the palace who attend immediately upon the king’s person, and were to seize upon, or destroy him, the moment he returned. This plot, in all its particulars, was conveyed to the king.
There was an old, abandoned house of king Yasous, at Bartcho, about a day’s journey south of Gondar; it stands on a very extensive plain. The king intending, as he said, to repair, or rather clean and prepare this house for his immediate reception, ordered all the black slaves from Gondar thither for that purpose, together with some of their ringleaders. Kasmati Waragna, in the mean time, was ordered to bring a thousand horsemen of his Galla Djawi. He arrived at Bartcho nearly at the same time with the black servants, who being unarmed, as suspecting nothing, and on foot, after a sharp reproof from the king, were all surrounded and cut to pieces by the hands of Waragna, and orders were immediately sent to Gondar to extirpate the remainder there; and this execution laid a foundation for a feud that endures to this day between the Galla troops and the black horse, who were then abolished, as the Galla have been since, though both were part of the king’s household formerly, before David’s or Bacuffa’s time. As for Welleta Raphael, she was seized that same night, and was conveyed to Walkayt, to be confined there, with private instructions, however, to put her to death speedily, which were executed accordingly.
The queen had a son within the year, whom the council named Yasous, after his grandfather, whose memory will ever be dear in Abyssinia; and this again revived the old apprehensions that Welleta Georgis was to govern the country (as the prophet said) for thirty years. Tormented with this idea, rather than the havoc it had occasioned, he devised with himself a scheme which he thought would certainly detect this future usurper of his crown and dethroner of his child. But first he directed that the queen should be crowned, a ceremony that carries great consequences along with it when solemnized properly, as at that time she is made regent, or Iteghè, in all minorities that may happen afterwards.
After he had created his wife Iteghè, Bacuffa pretended to be sick: several days passed without hopes of recovery; but at last the news of the king’s death were published in Gondar. The joy was so great, and so universal, that nobody attempted to conceal it. Every one found himself eased of a load of fear which had become insupportable. Several princes escaped from the mountain of Wechné to put themselves in the way of being chosen; some were sent to by those great men who thought themselves capable of effecting the nomination, and a speedy day was appointed for the burial of the king’s corpse, when Bacuffa appeared, in the ordinary seat of justice, early in the morning of that day, with the Iteghè, and the infant Yasous, his son, sitting in a chair below him.
There was no occasion to accuse the guilty. The whole court, and all strangers attending there upon business, fled, and spread an universal terror through the whole streets of Gondar. All ranks of people were driven to despair, for all had rejoiced; and much less crimes had been before punished with death. What this sedition would have ended in, it is hard to know, had it not been for the immediate resolution of the king, who ordered a general pardon and amnesty to be proclaimed at the door of the palace.
There are two kettle-drums of a large size placed one on each side of the outer gate of the king’s house. They are called the lion and the lamb. The lion is beat at the proclamations which regard war, attainders for conspiracies and rebellions, promotions to supreme commands, and suchlike high matters. The lamb[91] is heard only on beneficent, pacific occasions, of gifts from the crown, of general amnesties, of private pardons, and reversals of penal ordinances. The whole town was in expectation of some sanguinary decree, when, to their utter surprise, they heard the voice of the lamb, a certain sign of peace and forgivenness; and speedily followed by a proclamation, forbidding people of all degrees to leave their houses, that the king’s word was pledged for every one’s security; and that all the principal men should immediately attend him within the palace, in a public place which is called the Ashoa, and that upon pain of rebellion.
The king appeared cloathed all in white, being the habit of peace; his head was bare, dressed, anointed, and perfumed, and his face uncovered. He thus advanced to the rail of the gallery, about 10 feet above the heads of the audience, and, in a very graceful, composed, but resolute manner, began a short oration to the people. “He put them in mind of their wantonness in having made Oustas, a man not of the royal line of Solomon, king of Abyssinia; of their having incited his brother, Tecla Haimanout, to assassinate their father Yasous; that they had afterwards murdered Tecla Haimanout himself, one brother, and lately his other brother David, his own immediate predecessor: That he had taken due vengeance upon all the ringleaders of those crimes, as was the duty of his place, and, if much blood had been shed, it was because many enormities had been committed; but that knowing now that order was established, and conspiracies extinguished among them, he had counterfeited death, to signify an end was put to Bacuffa and his bloody measures; that he now was risen again, and appeared to them by the name of Atzham Georgis, son of Yasous the Great; and ordered every man home to his house to rejoice at the accession of a new king, under whom they should have justice, and live without fear, as long as they respected the king that God had anointed over them.”
This speech was followed by the loudest acclamations, “Long live Bacuffa! Long live Atzham Georgis!” It was well known that this king never failed in his word, or any way prevaricated in his promises. Every one, therefore, went home in as perfect peace as if war had never been among them; and Bacuffa’s delicacy in this respect was seen a few days after; for Hannes his brother having been brought clandestinely from Wechné by Kasmati Georgis, a nobleman of great consequence, they were both taken by the governor of Wechné and sent in chains to the king. The ordinary process would have been to put them instantly to death, as being apprehended in the very highest act of treason; nor would this have alarmed any person whatever, or been thought an infraction of the king’s late promise. Bacuffa, however, was of another mind. He sent the criminal judges, who ordinarily sit upon capital crimes, to meet the two prisoners in their way to Gondar, and carried them back to the foot of the mountain of Wechné to have their crimes proved, and to be tried there out of his presence and influence, where they were both condemned, Hannes to have an arm cut off, Georgis to be sent to prison to the governor of Walkayt, with private orders to put him to death; both which sentences were executed, though Hannes so far recovered that he was king of Abyssinia in my time, notwithstanding this mutilation; but it was a direct violation of the laws of the land.
It is said that a discovery, which happened in the king’s feigned illness, promoted this sudden revolution of manners. In one of his secret tours through Begemder, (after Tigré, the most powerful province in Abyssinia, and by much the most plentiful) being disguised like a poor man, dirty and fatigued with the length of the way and heat of the weather, he came to the house of a private person, not very rich, indeed, but of noble manners and carriage, and who, by the justice and mildness of his behaviour and customs, had acquired a great degree of influence among his neighbours. The father was old and feeble, but the son in the vigour of his age, who was then standing in a large pool of water, at his father’s door, washing his own cotton cloak, or wrapper, which is their upper garment; an occupation below no young man in Abyssinia.
Bacuffa, as overcome with heat, threw himself down under the shade of a tree, and, in a faint voice and foreign dialect, intreated the young man to wash his cloak likewise, after having finished his own. The young man consented most willingly; and, throwing by his own garment, fell to washing the stranger’s with great diligence and attention. In the mean time, Bacuffa began questioning him about the king, and what his opinion was of him. The young man answered, he had never formed any. Bacuffa, however, still plied him with questions, while he continued washing the cloak, without giving him any answer at all; at last, being able to hold out no longer, he gathered Bacuffa’s cloak in his arms, wet as it was, and threw it to him: “I thought, says he, when you prayed me to take your cloak, that I was doing a charitable action to some poor Galla fainting with fatigue, and perhaps with hunger; but, since I have had it in my hands, I have found you an instructor of kings and nobles, a leader of armies and maker of laws. Take your cloak, therefore, and wash it yourself, which is what Providence has ordained to be your business; it is a safer trade, and you will have less time to censure your superiors, which can never be a proper or useful occupation to a fellow like you.”
The king took his wet cloak, and the rebuke along with it, and, on his return, he sent for the man to Gondar, and raised him in a short time to the first offices in the state. He possessed his entire confidence; and he deserved it. He was the only man to whom the king had confided his fears of the usurper Welleta Georgis. While Bacuffa was supposed to be ill, the queen and this officer only present, he mentioned, for the first time, some surprise that no such person as Welleta Georgis had appeared during so long and so many inquiries, and could not help dropping some words as if he doubted the truth of this prophecy.
Badjerund Waragna, for that was the name of the king’s friend, maintained modestly that it might be a temptation of the devil to mislead him to his destruction. He told the king, that, by his own account of it, this Welleta Georgis was to have no power over him, as he was only to appear in his son’s time. He begged him, therefore, to lay aside all further thoughts of his prophecy, whilst he trusted his son’s succession to God’s mercy, and to the prayers, the charity, and prudence of the queen. The Iteghé all this time was lost in silence. She desired the king to repeat to her the whole circumstances of the prophecy, which he distinctly did. “I wish,” says she laughing, “this Welleta Georgis may not be now nearer us than we imagine; perhaps in the palace.” “In the palace!” says the king, with great emotion. “I doubt so,” says the queen; “suppose it should be me your own wife; for Welleta Georgis was the name given to me in baptism; and your late coronation of me, should a minority happen in the person of your son, or even a grandson, undoubtedly leaves me regent of the kingdom by your own intentions when you made me Iteghè.”
Whether the king was convinced or not, is not known; but he, from this time, desisted from his persecution of Welleta Georgis; and this the queen often told me among several anecdotes of that singular reign. She was my great patroness while at Gondar, and from her I received constant protection in the most disastrous times. To the credit of the prophet, she continued regent full thirty years; till the folly and ambition of her own family gave her a master that put an end to all her influence, except what she enjoyed from exemplary piety, and the most extensive works of charity and mercy.
The king died after a vigorous reign, and after having cut off the greatest part of the ancient nobility near Gondar, who were of age to have been concerned in the transactions of the last reigns. This has rendered his memory odious, though it is universally confessed he saved his country from an aristocratical or democratical usurpation; both equally unconstitutional, as they equally struck at the root of monarchy.
The queen, with very great prudence, concealed the day of the king’s death; nor did any one, after the last experiment, affect rashly to believe that his death was real. Thus all were upon their guard against another resurrection. In that interval, she called her brothers from Kuara, and strengthened her son’s and her own government, by putting the principal offices of state into the hands of persons attached to her family, so that, though her son Yasous was an infant, no attempt was at that time made towards any resolution. Even after the king’s death was known to be real, for many years afterwards there were people of credit at different times found, who said they had met him at sundry places alive; whether by instigation, for any particular purpose, or not, is difficult to say.
YASOUS II. or, ADIAM SEGUED.
From 1729 to 1753.Rebellion in the beginning of this Reign—King addicted to hunting—To building, and the Arts of Peace—Attacks Sennaar—Loses his Army—Takes Samayat—Receives Baady King of Sennaar under his Protection.
Besides the queen, mother of Yasous, Bacuffa had several other wives and divers children by them; none of them, however, had any degree of interest, or many followers, owing to the very singular practice of Bacuffa, already mentioned, in not admitting to his bed, from the time of his coming to the crown, any women except the queen, mother of Yasous, without having first so far intoxicated them with liquor as to produce an oblivion of all that passed at the interview. Some say this arose from his own jealous ideas; but the most general opinion was, that it was a kind of covenant with the queen, by which she pardoned him this temporary alienation of his person, for this security, that he was to give her no rival in his confidence. Indeed, his own temper led him naturally to estrange himself from every intimate connection, that could pretend to any lawful share with him in government. And this had gone so far, that he sent his wife, favourite as she was, and his son Yasous, to the low, hot, and unwholesome province of Walkayt, the ordinary place to which state criminals were banished, in order that they might be under the eye of Ain Egzie, a confidential servant of his, and governor of that province. It is true this was done without any mark of disgust; and the queen returned immediately by his own command; but Yasous staid at Walkayt with Ain Egzie, till he was four years old, without the king his father having shewn any anxiety for his return.
The queen’s first care was to call her brothers to court. The eldest, Welled de l’Oul, had been a favourite of the late king, and occupied under him a very considerable post in the palace. Geta, her second brother, was a man of slow parts, but esteemed a good soldier; being covetous, he was not a favourite of the people, and less so of the king. The third was Eshtè, (pronounced in that country Shitti); he was amiable, liberal, affable, and brave, but rather given to indolence and pleasure, which alone hindered him from being a good statesman and general. He was a kind friend to strangers, a good master, and placable enemy; stedfast to his promise, and on all occasions a lover of truth; a quality so very rare in Abyssinia, that it was said there had not been one in this respect like him since the time of Yasous the Great. Notwithstanding this, Bacuffa liked him not, as being too great a favourite of the people, and, for that reason, never gave him any employment.
The next brother was Eusebius, a very brave and skilful soldier, but rash, avaricious, passionate, and treacherous, and as great an enemy to truth as his brother Eshtè was a friend to it. Bacuffa, upon some slight complaint, had resolved to put him to death; and, though he was dissuaded from this, he could never be so far reconciled to him as ever to release him from prison. The fifth brother was Netcho, whom the desire of living at home, or, perhaps, a want of money to defray his expences at court, kept low and in obscurity all his life-time. Yet he was a tried, gallant, and skilful soldier; and in later years, when I was at Gondar, was often praised as such by Ras Michael, the best judge, because the greatest general of his time, though, by reason of Netcho’s private life, and absence from court, he never charged him with any important commission. Another brother was dead, and had left a son called Mammo, a good horseman, the only quality, as far as I know, that he possessed to which could justly be annexed the epithet of Good.
Of these brothers, Geta and Netcho were alive in my time. Eshtè was dead, but had left two sons, Ayto Engedan and Ayto Aylo, who were among the most intimate of my friends, from my entering Ethiopia till my leaving it; both were brave and good, and endowed with excellent qualities. Engedan, without any allowance for his country, and want of education, was, I think, by very much, the most amiable and complete man that I have ever yet seen.
Sanuda, son of Welled de l’Oul, played a very considerable part in the revolution that happened in my time; was of a figure more than ordinary graceful; was brave, and did not want good dispositions; but these were obscured by debauchery in wine and women, to which there were no bounds. Eusebius left two sons, both more worthless and profligate than himself, and both came to untimely ends: Guebra Mehedin, the eldest, was slain in a private quarrel at Lebec by a near relation, Kasmati Ayabdar, after having robbed my servants and plundered my baggage, in Foggora, near the village Dara; and the second, Ayto Confu, was killed in rebellion at the battle of Serbraxos, among the Begemder horse, fighting against his sovereign.
Mammo we shall find acting insignificant parts at times, never trusted, nor of consequence to any one. As for the queen herself, she was reputed the handsomest woman of her time. She was descended from Victor, eldest brother to Menas, and son of David, who died without coming to the crown. This daughter was married to Robel, governor of Tigré, whose mother was a Portuguese, and the queen inherited the colour of her European ancestors; indeed was whiter than most Portuguese. She was very vain of this her descent; had a warm attachment to the Catholic religion in her heart, as far as she could ever learn it; nor did she value herself less upon her beauty, as we may judge by the several names she took at different times. The first was Iteghè Mantuab, or the beautiful queen; the second was Berhan Magwass, or the glory of grace; though her christened name was Welleta Georgis, as we have already observed.
After the death of her husband, Bacuffa, she is said to have descended to a variety of attachments of short duration. She married a man of quality, Kasmati Netcho of Kuara, by whom she had three daughters. The first was Ozoro Esther, of whom I shall often speak, being, next to her mother, the greatest friend I had in Abyssinia, and one who had the most frequent opportunities of being so. She was married, in very early life, to Kasmati Netcho of Tcherkin, a man of great personal qualities, and who had a very large territory, reaching down to the Pagan blacks, or Troglodytes, called Shangalla.
This marriage was of very short duration. Netcho left one son, Ayto Confu, my very great and firm, though young friend, who likewise inherited his father’s fortune and virtues. She was afterwards married to Ayo Mariam Barea, (excepting Ras Michael) reputed the best general in Abyssinia, but who died before I came into the country. By him she had one son and a daughter, infants. Lastly, she was married to Ras Michael, by whom she had two sons, the favourites of Michael’s old age. Rustic and cruel as that old tyrant was, bred up in blood, and delighting in it, she governed him despotically, from the day of her marriage, yet so prudently, as to excite the envy of no one, excepting the murderers of her husband Mariam Barea, who, luckily, were also the constitutional enemies of her country.
The second daughter of the Iteghé was Ozoro Welleta Israel, the most beautiful woman in Abyssinia, with whom I had very little acquaintance, she being at constant war with Ras Michael. She had married a nobleman of the first consideration, to whom half of the large and rich province of Gojam belonged, by whom she had Aylo, one of the largest men that I ever saw, the only particular remarkable in him.
The third was Ozoro Altash, married to Welled Hawaryat, Ras Michael’s son, by whom she had three children, two sons and one daughter. One of them died of the small-pox soon after my arrival at Gondar, as did his father also; the other son and daughter happily recovered.
Bacuffa had provided sufficiently for the security of his provinces, by placing tried and veteran officers in his governments. Elias, indeed, was Ras and Betwudet at Gondar, and he was suspected of wishes contrary to his allegiance; but far before any, in the confidence of the late king, was Waragna Shalaka, that is, colonel of a regiment of Djawi Galla, with which he defended the provinces of Damot and Agow against his countrymen on the other side of the Nile; for he was a Galla of that nation himself, and his name was Usho, which signifies a dog. But it was more by his interest, which he preserved with those people, than by his arms, that he kept those barbarians from wasting that country.
The reader will easily remember the first occasion of his coming to Gondar was when Bacuffa saw him washing his clothes in a pool of water; and from the reproof, and his behaviour to the king on that occasion, as well as the duty and implicit obedience he paid to his commands afterwards, he was called Waragna, by way of contradiction, that word signifying a sturdy rebel, or one that stands up in defiance of the king. That name became much more famous afterwards in the person of his son, Waragna Fasil, to the very great detriment of the country in general.
The first thing the queen did was to send Shalaka Waragna, and Billetana Gueta David, with a large body of Mahometan fusileers, Djawi and Toluma Galla, to guard the mountain of Wechné, where the males of the royal family were imprisoned, that no competitor might be released from thence. The next step was to marry Ozoro Welleta Tecla Haimanout to Ras Elias, to confirm him, if possible, in his much suspected allegiance. After which, the Ras, judges, and soldiers of the king’s household, made this proclamation—“Bacuffa, king of kings, is dead! Yasous, king of kings, liveth! Mourn for those that are dead, and rejoice with those that are alive!” Orders were then given for burying Bacuffa with all magnificence possible.
The first thing that seemed the beginning of trouble in the new regency, and likely to destroy the calm that had hitherto subsisted, was an information given by Azage Georgis against Tecla Saluce, a great officer at court. Georgis accused him before the king and council, that he had been heard to say that king Yasous was dangerously ill. Tecla Saluce absolutely denied this charge, and said it was an invention of his enemy Georgis, and challenged him to prove it. Evidence being called, he was convicted in the most direct and satisfactory manner; was therefore condemned to death, and hewn to pieces at the king’s gate that same day by the common soldiers.
Here is a species of treason without any overt act. The imagining the king’s death, which seems much to resemble the law of England, may be defended from the importance of the case, but scarcely from any principle of justice or reason.
It soon appeared that a conspiracy had been on foot; several great men fled from court, among these Johannes, who had the charge of the king’s horses. But Shalaka Waragna and Billetana Gueta David, being sent immediately after him, this conspiracy was soon stifled, and the ringleaders dispersed, mostly into Amhara, where they were taken prisoners by Woodage governor of the province, and sent to the king. Johannes, finding it impossible to escape, took to one of those papyrus boats used in navigating the lake Tzana; and, being driven by the wind, landed in an island[92] belonging to the queen, where he was taken prisoner, with his wife and family, and delivered up, on condition that he should not be put to death.
Kasmati Cambi, returning from Damot, fell accidentally upon Palambaras Masmari and several others, and brought them prisoners to Gondar. A council was thereupon held, and the conspirators put upon their trial. Palambaras Masmari, and Abou Barea who was one of the judges, were condemned to be hanged on the tree before the palace-gate. Johannes and the rest were committed to close prison, in the hands of the Betwudet.
It was thought a proper expedient to check these disorders, to hasten the coronation of the king, though very young. The judges and all the officers being assembled in the presence-chamber, where the king sits on his throne, (for in the council-chamber he sits in a kind of cage, or close balcony) where no part of him is discovered, Sarach Masseri Mammo, whose office it was, stood up with the Kees Hatzé, or king’s almoner; when this last had anointed him with oil, Mammo placed the crown upon his head; upon which the whole assembly, his mother only excepted, fell down and paid him homage; and at his inauguration he took the name of Adiam Segued.
On a separate throne, on his right hand, sat the queen-mother. She, too, was crowned, though not anointed; but the same homage was performed to her that had been done to the king, who sat on the throne with his head covered; nor did the Abuna interfere, nor was his attendance judged any part of the ceremony.
The first seeds of discontent had been sown in Damot, where a party of rebels had attacked Kasmati Cambi in the night, cut most of his army to pieces, and obliged Shalaka Job to fly into Gojam, and then return in haste to Gondar.
The king found no better remedy against this rebellion than to appoint Kasmati Waragna governor of Damot, and Sanuda guardian of Wechné, with orders to take with him a son of the late Oustas the usurper, and confine him with the king’s sons upon that mountain. At the same time he appointed Ayo governor of Begemder; both these preferments being much to the satisfaction of the whole nation. Waragna, knowing the necessities of his province, marched from Gondar with what forces he could collect, and took up his head-quarters at Samseen, where, on the very night after his arrival, he was set upon by Tensa Mammo at the head of the Agows. However unexpected this was, Waragna, a good soldier, was not to be taken by surprise. He knew the country, and had not a great opinion either of the force or courage of the enemy, or capacity of their general. Presenting, therefore, only one half of his troops, which could not be easily discovered in the dark, he sent Fit-Auraris Tamba to make a small compass, and fall upon their rear with the other half. Mammo’s troops, thinking this to be a fresh and separate army, immediately took to flight, and were many of them slain, after leaving behind them their tents, baggage, and the greatest part of their fire-arms, which had been of very little service to them in the dark.
Waragna, who knew the consequence of his province was the riches of it, and the dependence the capital had upon it for constant supplies of provisions, was loath to pursue his victory farther, if any means could be fallen upon to bring about a pacification. To effect this, he dispatched messengers to his friends, the Galla, on the other side of the Nile, ordering them to be ready to pass the river on the day he should appoint, and to lay waste the country of the Agow with fire and sword. He then decamped with his army from Samseen, and marched to Sacala, and took up his head-quarters in St Michael’s church, where he found the Agows in the utmost terror from apprehension of being over-run with barbarians. But he soon eased them of their fears by a proclamation, in which he told them plainly, that it was owing to the goodness of the country, and not any merit in the people, that the king’s palace and capital was so plentifully supplied with provisions from thence; that all his pursuit was peace, but that he was resolved to effect that end by every possible means; therefore the time was now come that they were to make a resolution, and abide by it, to submit and behave peaceably as good citizens ought; or, when his army of Galla joined him, he would extirpate them to the last man. In the mean time, he published an amnesty of all that had passed.
The Agows knew well that they were in the hands of one who was no trifler, nor in his heart much their friend. They ran to him, ready to make that composition which he should raise from them for their past transgressions and his future protection. The tribute laid upon them, for both was moderate beyond all expectation, 2000 oxen for the king and queen, and 500 for himself; upon which he left Sacala, and entered Goutto, a very fertile country, between Maitsha and the Agows, where he used the same moderation, and by these means quieted and reconciled his whole province.
Nothing could have been more advantageous to the king’s affairs than the prudent conduct of this wise officer, which left him at liberty to afford him his assistance; for in the mean time a conspiracy was formed at Gondar, which had taken deep root, and had a powerful faction, Elias, late Ras and Betwudet, Tensa Mammo, Guebra l’Oul, Matteos and Agnè, all principal men in Gondar, and possessed of great riches and dependencies throughout the whole kingdom.
On the 8th of December 1734, being joined by their followers from without, they all rendezvoused upon the river Kahha, below the town. After holding council in the king’s house which is there, they resolved to proclaim one of the princes upon the mountain Wechné, named Hezekias, king. For this purpose, furnished with a kettle-drum, they marched in three divisions, by three different ways, to the palace, avowedly with an intention to force the gates and murder the king and queen. But Fit-Auraris Ephraim, having intelligence of this tumult, first shut up and obstructed all the entrances to the king’s house, then gave advice to Billetana Gueta, Welled de l’Oul, of the rebellion of Tensa Mammo, their design to murder the king, and their having proclaimed Hezekias.
These immediately repaired to the king’s house to take council together what was to be done, and to defend the place if it was necessary. The rebels were now drawn up, and were beating their kettle-drum to make their proclamation, “Hezekias was king!” while Shalaka Tchinsho, a young nobleman of great hopes, who commanded the troops in the court where was the outer gate, impatient to hear an usurper proclaimed in the very face of his sovereign, directed the outer-court gate to be opened, and, with two bodies of Galla, Djawi and Toluma, and several corps of lances, which compose the king’s household, however inferior in number, he rushed upon the rebels so suddenly, that they were soon obliged to think of other occupation.
The first that fell was Asalessi Lensa, who stood by the drum, and was slain by Shalaka Tchinsho with his own hand; his drum taken and sent to the king as the first fruits of the day. The soldiers, encouraged by the example of their leader, fell fiercely upon the rebels, dispersed and broke through them wherever they saw the greatest number together; a great slaughter was made, and Tensa Mammo, with difficulty, escaped. The victory indeed would have been complete, had not an accidental shot from a distance wounded Shalaka Tchinsho mortally. His own people carried him within the gate of the palace, where he gloriously expired at the feet of his sovereign.
The rebels, notwithstanding this check, increased every day in number and resolution, when the news arrived that Waragna had composed all the differences in Damot, Agow, and Goutto, and, at the head of a numerous army, was waiting the king’s orders. This intelligence first had the effect to disconcert the rebels, who suddenly left the capital in their way to Wechné.
The king, now master of Gondar, ordered a proclamation to be made for all persons whatever holding fiefs of the crown, as also all others, to assemble before him on a short day, where the Itchegué and Abuna, holding the picture of our Saviour, with the crown of thorns[93], up before the people, did administer to them a solemn oath, to live and die with the king and Iteghé; a feeble experiment, often tried by a weak government. The only consequence of this was present expence to the crown in a distribution of beef, honey, butter, wheat, and all kinds of provisions; after which each man returned to his house, ready to repeat the perjury ten times a day for the same emolument, and same sincerity.
Messengers were next dispatched to Kasmati Waragna, ordering him to come to Gondar with the greatest force he could raise. The same day Azage Kyrillos, whom the king had made governor of Wechné, and Azage Newaia Selassé, went to the mountain, pretending that king Yasous was dead, and that the choice of the principal members of government had fallen upon Hezekias, who thereupon was delivered to him, and saluted king; and, without losing time, they marched to Kahha, and encamped on that river below Gondar.
In the mean while, the great men and officers of the court, and in particular those who had estates and houses in Gondar, began to consider the danger of the town at the so near approach of the rebels. Several districts, or streets, situated on eminences, by shutting up access to them, were made tenable posts, and, having filled them with good soldiers, they set about the defence of the town and annoying the enemy. Hezekias had removed to the house of Basha Arkillidas; and it was agreed to send their whole forces to see if they could succeed in forcing the king’s house. But before this another stratagem was tried to alienate the minds of the people of Gondar from their sovereign. It was said that certain Roman Catholic priests had arrived at Gondar; that they were shut up privately in the palace with the king and queen; and, upon the Abuna and Itchegué coming to Hezekias to ask him how he happened to be proclaimed king, without making to them some confession of his faith, (a question they put to all young or weak princes), Hezekias answered, It was because he had heard the Itchegué, and the rest of the clergy, seemed to be careless about the true faith, by suffering Catholic priests to live with the king in the palace. A great ferment immediately followed; all the monks, priests, and madmen that could be assembled, (and on these occasions they gather quickly), with the Itchegué and Abuna at their heads, went to Dippabye, the open place before the palace, and pronounced the Iteghè, Yasous, and all their abettors, accursed and given up to burn with Dathan and Abiram.
For several days and nights attempts were made to set fire to, and break open the gate. But the loyalists charged them so vigorously upon all these occasions, especially Billetana Gueta Welled de l’Oul, and the walls of the palace were so exceedingly thick and strong, that little progress was made in proportion to the men these attempts cost daily. However, on that side of the palace called Adenaga, the rebels had lodged themselves so near as to set part of it on fire.
The king’s house in Gondar stands in the middle of a square court, which may be full an English mile in circumference. In the midst of it is a square tower, in which there are many noble apartments. A strong double wall surrounds it, and this is joined by a platform roof; loop-holes, and conveniences for discharging missile weapons, are disposed all around it. The whole tower and wall is built of stone and lime; but part of the tower being demolished and laid in ruins, and part of it let fall for want of repair, small apartments, or houses of one storey, have been built in different parts of the area, or square, according to the fancy of the prince then reigning, and these go now by the names of the ancient apartments in the palace, which are fallen down.
These houses are composed of the frail materials of the country, wood and clay, thatched with straw, though, in the inside, they are all magnificently lined, or furnished. They have likewise magnificent names, which we have mentioned already. These people, barbarous as they are, have always had a great taste for magnificence and expence. All around them was silver, gold, and brocade, before the Adelan war, in which they lost the commerce of that country, by losing their connexion with India.
The next night the soldiers of Elias made their lodgments so near the walls, that, with fiery arrows, they set one of these houses, called “Werk Sacala,” within the square, in flames; but Welled de l’Oul, with the Toluma Galla, sallying at that instant, surprised Elias’s soldiers, not expecting such interruption, and put the greatest part of them to the sword, setting on fire the houses that were near the palace, till part was entirely burnt to the ground. The next night, an attempt was made upon the gate to blow it up with gunpowder; but, before it was completed, the two rebels employed in the work were shot dead from the wall, and their train miscarried.
On the 25th of December they burned a new house in the town built by the king, called Riggobee Bet. These frequent fires had turned the minds of people in general very much against Hezekias the rebel. The night after, there was another great fire in the king’s house; Zeffan Bet, and another large building, were destroyed by the rebels, as was the church of St Raphael. Gondar looked like a town that had been taken by an enemy, and battles were every day fought in the streets, with no decisive advantage to either party. Some part of the town was on fire every night; nobody knew for what reason, nor what was the quarter that was next to be burnt.
In the mean time, Azage Georgis arrived in the country of the Agows at Basil Bet, where Waragna was, and delivered him the king’s order, that he should make all possible haste to his assistance at Gondar, with as large an army as he could suddenly bring; and these dispatches conferred upon him at the same time, as a mark of favour, the post of Ibaba Azage, or governor of Ibaba, together with Elmana and Densa, two districts inhabited by Galla, subjects to the king, which posts were then held by Tensa Mammo, and forfeited by his rebellion.
The next morning Waragna left his head-quarters at Basil Bet; thence he marched to Gumbali, and thence to Sima. At Sima he heard, that, the day before, it had been proclaimed at Ibaba, by orders of Tensa Mammo, that Yasous was dead, and Hezekias was now king; upon this intelligence he marched from Sima, and, while it was yet early in the day, he came to Ibaba.
The first inquiry was concerning the Shum (or chief of the town) left there by Tensa Mammo; and this man, coming readily to him to receive his commands, and offer him any service in his power, was asked by whose orders the proclamation of Hezekias was made? Being answered, by Tensa Mammo’s, he directed the Shum and his two sons to be hanged on three separate trees in the middle of the town; the Shum with the nagareet round his neck which had served in the proclamation of Hezekias; he then declared Tensa Mammo a rebel and outlaw, and confiscated his estate to the king’s use.
At Ibaba he met Fit-Auraris Tamba, with a large body of Damots and Djawi; then he decamped from Ibaba, and, at the bridge over the Nile, was met by Azage Georgis, with all Maitsha, Elmana, and Densa following, and thence proceeded to Waira, where he set Arkillidas at liberty. This officer, after distinguishing himself before all others in the king’s defence, had been taken prisoner by Tensa Mammo, and sent thither. Advancing into Foggora, with a large army, he halted at Gilda, and sent some soldiers on the road to Gondar, to see if he could apprehend any travellers, especially those going or coming to or from market. But, after three days waiting on the road, the soldiers returned without any person or intelligence, by which he judged the town was already in great straits. In two days after, he advanced to Wainarab, and thence he sent his Fit-Auraris forward to set a house at Tedda on fire, to shew to the king at Gondar that he was thus far advanced to his assistance. This barbarous custom of burning a house wherever an army encamps, though but for an hour, is invariably practised, as a signal by armies, throughout all Abyssinia.
At this time there was a treaty begun between the king and Tensa Mammo. The rebels, weary of the little advantage they had gained, and hearing Waragna was about to march against them, offered the queen her own terms, provided she published a general amnesty, and that each man should be allowed to keep the posts he had before the rebellion. The queen, weary and terrified with war, readily agreed to this proposal; and this facility, instead of accelerating the treaty, gave the rebels an opportunity of asking further terms, and a settlement was spoken of for the king Hezekias, in some of the low provinces near Walkayt.
Welled de l’Oul, the queen’s brother, a man in whom the rebels had trust, seconded his sister’s desire, and carried on the treaty, but from different motives; it was his opinion, that, to make peace with the rebels, leaving their party unbroken, was to spread the infection of rebellion all over the kingdom; and to let them keep their posts, was leaving a sword in their hands to enable them to defend themselves on any future occasion. He therefore thought, that, as the king had Waragna now at his command, they should make use of him to pluck up this rebellion by the roots, cut off all the ringleaders, and disperse the faction; but, in the mean time, in order to be able to effect this, they should keep up the appearance of being anxious for agreeing, in order to lull the enemy asleep, till Waragna made his instructions and designs known to the king.
From Wainarab, Waragna sent a messenger to let the king and queen know of his arrival; and with him came Arkillidas, that no doubt might remain of the truth of the message. This officer told the king, that Waragna should advance to Tedda, and offer the rebels battle there; but if they retired (as he heard they intended) to Abra, he would follow them thither. He desired the king also to issue his orders to the several Shums to guard the roads, that as few of the ringleaders of the rebels might escape as possible.
Hezekias, with his army, decamped, taking the road to Woggora; and Waragna, following him, came up with him at Fenter, on January 20th 1735. The rebels, inferior in number, though they did not wish an engagement at that time, were too high-minded to avoid it when offered. Both armies fought a long time with equal fortune; and though Waragna at the first onset had slain two men with his own hands, and taken two prisoners, the battle was supported with great firmness till the evening, when Waragna ordered all his Galla, the men of Maitsha, Elmana, and Densa, to leave their horses, and charge the enemy on foot. This confident step, unknown and unpractised by Galla before, had the desired effect. The Galla now fought desperately for life, not for victory, being deprived of their only means of saving themselves by flight.
Most of the principal officers among the rebels being killed or wounded, their army at last was broken, and took to flight. Hezekias was surrounded and taken, fighting bravely; being first hurt in the leg, and then beat off his horse with a stone. The pursuit was presently stayed. Tensa Mammo escaped safely through Woggora, a disaffected province; and had now passed the Tacazzé, when he was taken by the men of Siré, and brought to the king for the reward that had been offered for his head by Waragna.
Hezekias was brought to his trial before the king, nor did he presume to deny his guilt. He was therefore sentenced to die, and committed to close prison. Tensa Mammo was arraigned, and, although he confessed the treason, he pleaded the peace he had made with the king before the arrival of Waragna at Gondar. This plea was unanimously over-ruled by the judges, because the treaty had not been completed. He was, therefore, sentenced to die, and immediately carried out to the daroo-tree before the palace, and hanged between two of his most confidential counsellors.
The Abuna and Itchegué were next ordered to appear, and answer for the crime of high treason in excommunicating the king; they declared they proceeded on no other grounds than an information, that the king and queen were turned Franks, and had two Catholic priests with them in the palace. The men complained of were produced, and proved to be two Greeks; Petros, a native of Rhodes, and Demetrius. This explanation being given, the Abuna and Itchegué thereupon asked pardon of the king and queen, and were ordered to make their recantation at Dippabye, which they immediately did, declaring they were wrong, and had proceeded on false information.
It was on the 28th of January that Sanuda and Adero were ordered to carry king Hezekias to Wechné, which they did, and left him there without disfiguring him in any part of his body, as is the cruel, but usual custom in such cases. But both the Iteghè and her son were of the most merciful disposition; and the general reputation they had for this was often the cause of tumults and rebellions that would not have had birth in severer reigns.
It was not long after this when there appeared a pretender to the crown, very little expected. He said he was the old king Bacuffa; that he had given it out that he was dead, for political reasons, and was come again to claim his crown and kingdom. Never was resurrection so little wished for as this; a violent fear fell upon part of the multitude for some time; but his name making no party, whether true or false, he was seized upon without bloodshed, tried, and condemned to die. This punishment was changed into one of a supposed gentler kind, the cutting off his leg, and sending him to Wechné. The operation, always performed in the grossest manner by an ax, high up the leg, and near the knee, is generally fatal; for there is no one, having either skill or care, to take up the ends of the veins and arteries separated by the amputation; they only apply useless stiptics and bandages, of no effect, till the patient bleeds to death. This is the common case, so that the pretended Bacuffa died, in consequence of the operation, before he came to Wechné, though he was by his sentence reprieved from death.
The king, now arrived at the seventh year of his reign, proclaimed a general hunt, which is a declaration of his near approach to manhood; but he pursued it no length, and again returned to Gondar.
At that time, a great party of the queen’s relations was made against Ayo governor of Begemder, It began by a competition between Kasmati Geta the queen’s brother, and Ayo, who should have that province. The common voice was for Ayo, not only as a man of the greatest interest in the province, but in all respects unexceptionable throughout the kingdom. Welled de l’Oul, (brother to Geta) however, being now Ras and Betwudet, Geta governor of Samen, Eusebius, and all the rest of them in high places at court, Geta was preferred to the government of Begemder. Ayo, though avowedly a good subject of the king, was determined not to be made a sacrifice to a party. He therefore refused to resign his government, and prepared to defend himself.
Upon this, Adero, governor of Gojam, with the whole forces of that province, passed the Nile, and entered Begemder; Geta on the side of Samen, and last of all Welled de l’Oul marched with a royal army to join the forces that had already begun to lay waste the country, where unusual excesses were committed. Ayo’s house was burned to the ground, so were all those of his party, and their lands destroyed, greatly to the general damage of the province and capital. Ayo was now obliged to save himself by flight. It was said, that the king (though his army was ready) refused to march against Ayo; but with a party of his own set out for Aden, on the frontiers of Sennaar, to hunt there; nor did he return till the executions were over in Begemder.
Adero fell back to Gojam, and Welled de l’Oul to Gondar soon after. The king himself appeared very much contented with his own expedition, in which he had shown great dexterity and bravery, having killed two young elephants, and a gomari, or hippopotamus, with his own hands. Nor did he stay any time at Gondar, or make any preferments, the usual consequences of victories, but prepared again for another hunting-expedition, or an attack upon the Shangalla. The queen and Welled de l’Oul opposed strongly his resolution. But Yasous seemed to be weary of being governed. He was fast advancing to manhood, and of a disposition rather forward for his age. His expedition against the Shangalla was attended with no accident; and he returned to Gondar on the 3d of June, with a number of slaves, much better pleased that he had neglected, rather than taken, his mother’s advice.
It was on the 23d day of December that Yasous again set out on another hunting-party, and killed two elephants and a rhinoceros. He then proceeded to Tchelga, and from Tchelga to Waldubba; thence he went to the rivers Gandova and Shimfa. These are two rivers we shall have occasion frequently to speak of in our return through Sennaar, in which kingdom the one is called Dender, the other Rahad. Here he exercised himself at a very violent species of hunting, that of forcing the gieratacachin, which means long-tail; it is otherwise called giraffa in Arabic. It is the tallest of beasts; I never saw it dead, nor, I think, more than twice alive, and then at a distance. It is, however, often killed by the elephant-hunters. Its skin is beautifully variegated when young, but turns brown when arrived at any age. It is, I apprehend, the camelopardalis, and is the only animal, they say, that, in swiftness, will beat a horse in the fair field.
It was not with a view to hunt only, that Yasous made these frequent excursions towards the frontiers of Sennaar. His resolution was formed (as it appeared soon after) in imitation of his forefather Socinios, to revive his right over the country of the Shepherds, his ancient vassals, who, since the accession of strength by uniting with the Arabs, had forgot their ancient tribute and subjection, as we have already observed.
The king in five days marching from Gidara came to a station of the Daveina, which is a tribe of shepherds, by much the strongest of any in Atbara. He fell into their encampments a little before the dawn of day. The first shew they made was that of resistance, till they had got their horses and camels saddled; they then all fled, after the king had killed three of them with his own hand. Ras Woodage signalized himself likewise by having slain the same number with the king. The cattle, women, and provisions fell all into the king’s hand, and were driven off to Gondar. Their arrival gave the town an entertainment to which they had a long time been strangers. Many thousand camels were assembled in the plain, where stands the palace of Kahha, (upon a river of that name) large flocks of horned cattle, of extraordinary beauty, were also brought from Atbara, which the king ordered to be distributed among his soldiers, and the priests of Gondar, and such of the officers of state as had been necessarily detained on account of the police, and had not followed the army.
This year, 1736, there happened a total eclipse of the sun which very much affected the minds of the weaker sort of people. The dreamers and the prophets were everywhere let loose, full of the lying spirit which possessed them, to foretel that the death of the king, and the downfal of his government were at hand, and deluges of civil blood were then speedily to be spilt both in the capital and provinces. There was not, indeed, at the time any circumstance that warranted such a prediction, or any thing likely to be more fatal to the state, than the expenditure of the large sums of money that the turn the king had taken subjected him to.
He had built a large and very costly church at Koscam, and he was still engaged in a more expensive work in the building of a palace at Gondar. He was also rebuilding his house at Riggobee-ber, (the north end of the town) which had been demolished by the rebels; and had begun a very large and expensive villa at Azazo, with extensive groves, or gardens, planted thick with orange and lemon trees, upon the banks of a beautiful and clear river which divides the palace from the church of Tecla Haimanout, a large edifice which, some time before, he had also built and endowed. Besides all these occupations, he was deeply engaged in ornamenting his palace at Gondar. A rebellion, massacre, or some such misfortune, had happened among the Christians of Smyrna; who, coming to Cairo, and finding that city in a still less peaceable state than the one which they had left, they repaired to Jidda in their way to India; but missing the monsoon, and being destitute of money and necessaries, they crossed over the Red Sea for Masuah, and came to Gondar. There were twelve of them silver-smiths, very excellent in that fine work called filligrane, who were all received very readily by the king, liberally furnished both with necessaries and luxuries, and employed in his palace as their own taste directed them.
By the hands of these, and several Abyssinians whom they had taught, sons of Greek artists whose fathers were dead, he finished his presence-chamber in a manner truly admirable. The skirting, which in our country is generally of wood, was finished with ivory four feet from the ground. Over this were three rows of mirrors from Venice, all joined together, and fixed in frames of copper, or cornices gilt with gold. The roof, in gaiety and taste, corresponded perfectly with the magnificent finishing of the room; it was the work of the Falasha, and consisted of painted cane, split and disposed in Mosaic figures, which produces a gayer effect than it is possible to conceive. This chamber, indeed, was never perfectly finished, from a want of mirrors. The king died; taste decayed; the artists were neglected, or employed themselves in ornamenting saddles, bridles, swords, and other military ornaments, for which they were very ill paid; part of the mirrors fell down; part remained till my time; and I was present when the last of them were destroyed, on a particular occasion, after the battle of Serbraxos, as will be hereafter mentioned.
The king had begun another chamber of equal expence, consisting of plates of ivory, with stars of all colours stained in each plate at proper distances. This, too, was going to ruin; little had been done in it but the alcove in which he sat, and little of it was seen, as the throne and person of the king concealed it.
Yasous was charmed with this multiplicity of works and workmen. He gave up himself to it entirely; he even wrought with his own hand, and rejoiced at seeing the facility with which, by the use of a compass and a few straight lines, he could produce the figure of a star equally exact with any of his Greeks. Bounty followed bounty. The best villages, and those near the town, were given in property to the Greeks that they might recreate themselves, but at a distance, always liable to his call, and with as little loss of time as possible. He now renounced his favourite hunting-matches and incursions upon the Shangalla and Shepherds of Atbara.
The extraordinary manner in which the king employed his time soon made him the object of public censure. Pasquinades began to be circulated throughout the capital; one in particular, a large roll of parchment, intituled, “The expeditions of Yasous the Little.” The king in reality was a man of short stature. The Ethiopic word Tannush, joined to the king’s name Yasous el Tannush, applied both to his stature and actions. So Tallac, the name given to another Yasous, his predecessor, signified great in capacity and atchievement, as well as that he was of a large and masculine person.
These expeditions, though enumerated in a large sheet of parchment, were confined to a very few miles; from Gondar to Kahha, from Kahha to Koscam, from Koscam to Azazo, from Azazo to Gondar, from Gondar to Koscam, from Koscam to Azazo, and so on. It was a similar piece of ridicule upon his father Philip, as we are informed, that, in the last century, cost Don Carlos, prince of Spain, his life.
This satire nettled Yasous exceedingly; and, to wipe off the imputation of inactivity and want of ambition, he prepared for an expedition against Sennaar. It was not, however, one of those inroads into Atbara upon the Arabs and Shepherds, whom the Funge had conquered and made tributary to them; but was a regular campaign with a royal army, aimed directly at the very vitals of the monarchy of Sennaar, the capital of the Funge, and at the conquest or extirpation of those strangers entirely from Atbara.
We have seen, in the course of our history, that these two kingdoms, Abyssinia and Funge, had been on very bad terms during several of the last reigns; and that personal affronts and slights had passed between the cotemporary princes themselves. Baady, son of L’Oul, who succeeded his father in the year 1733, had been distinguished by no exploits worthy of a king, but every day had been stained with acts of treachery and cruelty unworthy of a man. No intercourse had passed between Yasous and Baady during their respective reigns; there was no war declared, nor peace established, nor any sort of treaty subsisting between them.
Yasous, without any previous declaration, and without any provocation, at least as far as is known, raised a very numerous and formidable army, and gave the command of it to Ras Welled de l’Oul; and Kasmati Waragna was appointed his Fit-Auraris. The king commanded a chosen body of troops, separate from the rest of the army, which was to act as a reserve, or as occasion should require, in the pitched battle. This he ardently wished for, and had figured to himself that he was to fight against Baady in person. Yasous, from the moment he entered the territory of Sennaar, gave his soldiers the accustomed licence he always had indulged them with, when marching through an enemy’s country. He knew not, in these circumstances, what was meant by mercy; all that had the breath of life was sacrificed by the sword, and the fire consumed the rest.
An universal terror spread around him down to the heart of Atbara. The Shepherds and Arabs, as many as could fly, dispersed themselves in the woods, which, all the way from the frontiers of Abyssinia to the river Dender, are very thick, and in some places almost impenetrable. Some of the Arabs, either from affection or fear, joined Yasous in his march; among these was Nile Wed Ageeb, prince of the Arabs; others taking courage, gathered, and made a stand at the Dender, to try their fortune, and give their cattle time to pass the Nile, and then, if defeated, they were to follow them. Kasmati Waragna, (as Fit-Auraris) joined by the king, no sooner came up with these Arabs on the banks of the Dender, than he fell furiously upon them, broke and dispersed them with a considerable slaughter; then leaving Ras Welled de l’Oul with the king, and the main body to encamp, taking advantage of the confusion the defeat of the Arabs had occasioned, he advanced by a forced march to the Nile, to take a view of the town of Sennaar.
Baady had assembled a very large army on the other side of the river, and was preparing to march out of Sennaar; but, terrified at the king’s approach, the defeat of the Arabs, and the velocity with which the Abyssinians advanced, he was about to change his resolution, abandon Sennaar, and retire north into Atbara.
There is a small kingdom, or principality, called Dar Fowr, all inhabited by negroes, far in the desert west of Sennaar, joining with two other petty negro states like itself, still farther westward, called Selé and Bagirma, while to the eastward it joins with Kordofan, formerly a province of Dar Fowr, but conquered from it by the Funge.
Hamis, prince of Dar Fowr, had been banished from his country in a late revolution occasioned by an unsuccessful war against Selé and Bagirma, and had fled to Sennaar, where he had been received kindly by Baady, and it was by his assistance the Funge had subdued Kordofan. This prince, a gallant soldier, could not bruik to see the green standard of his prophet Mahomet flying before an army of Christians; and, being informed of the king’s march and separation from the main body nearly as soon as it happened, he proposed to Baady, that, as an allurement to Yasous to pass the river with only the troops he had with him, he should do from prudence what he resolved to do from fear, and fall back behind Sennaar, leaving it to Yasous to enter; but, in the mean time, that, he should dispatch him with 4000 of his best horse, armed with coats of mail, to pass the Nile at a known place below, on the right of Welled de l’Oul, on whom he should fall by surprise, and, if lucky enough to defeat him, as was probable, he would then close upon Yasous’s rear, which would of necessity either oblige him to surrender, or lose his life and army in attempting to repass the river between the two Nubian armies. This counsel, for many reasons was perfectly agreeable to Baady, who instantly fell back from covering Sennaar, and then detached Hamis to make a circuit out of sight, and cross the Nile as proposed.
In the mean time, Yasous advanced to Basboch, where he found the current too rapid, and the river too deep for his infantry. He dispatched, therefore, a messenger to Welled de l’Oul for a reinforcement of horse, and gave his infantry orders to retire to the main body upon the arrival of the reinforcement of cavalry. This resolution he had taken upon advancing higher up the river from Basboch, till opposite to the town of Sennaar, and when divided only from it by the Nile. He there saw the confusion that reigned in that large town. No preparation for resistance being visible, the cries of women at the sight of an enemy so near them, and the hurry of the men deserting their habitation loaded with the most valuable of their effects, all increased the king’s impatience to put himself in possession of this capital of his enemy.
It happened that an Arab, belonging to Nile Wed Ageeb, had seen the manœuvre of Hamis and his cavalry. This man, crossing the Nile at the nearest ford, came and told his master, Wed Ageeb, what he had seen, who informed the king of his danger. Upon interrogating the Arab, it was found that the affair of Welled de l’Oul would certainly be over before the king could possibly join him; and in that case he must fall in the midst of a victorious army, and his destruction must then be inevitable, if he attempted it. It was, therefore, agreed, as the only means possible to save the king and that part of the army he had with him, to retreat in the route Shekh Nile should indicate to them, marching up with the river Nile close on their right hand, and leaving the desert between that and the Dender, which is absolutely without water, to cover their left. This was executed as soon as resolved.
In the mean time, Hamis had crossed the Nile, and continued his march with the utmost diligence, and, in the close of the evening, had fallen upon Welled de l’Oul as unexpectedly as he could have wished. The Abyssinians were everywhere slaughtered and trodden down before they could prepare themselves for the least resistance. All that could fly sheltered themselves in the woods: but this refuge was as certain death as the sword of the Funge; for, after leaving the river Dender, all the country behind them was perfectly destitute of water. Ras Welled de l’Oul, and some other principal officers, under the direction of some faithful Arabs, escaped, and, with much difficulty, two days after, joined the king.
Besides these, the army, consisting of 18,000 men, either perished by the sword, by thirst, or were taken prisoners; all the sacred reliques, which the Abyssinians carry about with their armies to ensure victory, and avert misfortune; the picture of the crown of thorns, called sele quarat rasou; pieces of the true cross; a crucifix that had on many occasions spoke, (which should ever after be dumb since it spoke not that day); all these treasures of priestcraft were taken by the Funge, and carried in triumph to Sennaar. Great part of those Arabs, who had joined the king in his march northward, had now quitted him and attached themselves to the pursuit of the fugitive remains of Welled de l’Oul’s army. As these Arabs were those that lived nearest the Abyssinian frontier, and to whom the king had done no harm, because they had mostly joined him, no sooner was he informed of their treachery, but just arrived in their country, and scarcely out of danger from the pursuit of the Funge, Yasous turned short to the left, destroying with fire and sword all the families of those that had forsaken him, and so continued to do till arrived on the banks of the Tacazzé.
The Arabs and Shepherds there, many of whom had just returned from the destruction of Welled de l’Oul’s army at Sennaar, and were now rejoicing their families with the news of so complete a victory, and that all danger from the Christian army was over, were astonished to see Yasous at the head of a fresh and vigorous army, burning and destroying their country, and committing all sort of devastation, when they thought him long ago dead, or fugitive, and skulking half-famished on the banks of the Dender.
The king returned in this manner to Gondar, carrying more the appearance of a conqueror than one who had suffered the loss of a whole army, his soldiers being loaded with the spoils of the Arabs, and multitudes of cattle driven before them. It was but too visible, however, by the countenances of many, how wide a difference there was between the loss and the acquisition.
It was, indeed, not from the presence or behaviour of the king, nor yet from his discourse, that it could be learned any such misfortune had befallen him. On the contrary, he affected greater gaiety than usual, when talking of the expedition; and said publicly, and laughing, one day, as he arose from council, “Let all those who were not pleased with the song of Koscam sing that of Sennaar.” From this many were of opinion, that he enjoyed a kind of malevolent pleasure from the misfortune which had befallen his army, who, not content with seeing him cultivate and enjoy the arts of peace, had urged him to undertake a war of which there was no need, and for which there was no provocation given, though in it there was every sort of danger to be expected.
Although Yasous gave no consolation to his people, the priests and fanatics soon endeavoured to prepare them one. Tensa Mammo arrived from Sennaar with the crown of thorns, the true cross, and all the rest of that precious merchandise, safe and entire, only a little profaned by the bloody hands of the Moors. Ras Welled de l’OuL’s army, consisting of 18,000 of their fellow-citizens, was lying dead upon the Dender. It was no matter; they had got the speaking crucifix, but had paid 8000 ounces of gold for it. Still it was no matter; they had got the crown of thorns. The priests made processions from church to church, singing hallelujahs and songs of thanksgiving, when they should have been in sackcloth and ashes, upon their knees deprecating any further chastisement upon their pride, cruelty, and profaneness. All Gondar was drunk with joy; and Yasous himself was astonished to see them singing the song of Sennaar much more willingly than that of Koscam.
At this time died Abuna Christodulus; and it was customary for the king to advance the money to defray the expence of bringing a successor. But Yasous’s money was all gone to Venice for mirrors; and, to defray the expence of bringing a new Abuna, as well as of redeeming of the sacred reliques, he laid a small tax upon the churches, saying merrily, “that the Abuna and the crosses were to be maintained, and repaired by the public; but it was incumbent upon the church to purchase new ones when they were worn out.”
Theodorus, priest of Debra Selalo, Likianos of Azazo, and Georgis called Kipti, were consigned to the care of three Mahometan merchants and brokers at court, whose names were Hamet Ali, Abdulla, and Abdelcader, to go to Cairo and fetch a successor for Christodulus. They arrived at Hamazen on April 29th 1743, where the Mahometan guides chose rather to pass the winter-season than at Masuah, as at that place they were apprehensive they would suffer extortions and ill-usage of every sort. We know not what came of Georgis Kipti; but, as soon as the rainy season was over, Theodorus and Likianos came straight to Masuah.
As soon as the Naybe got the whole convoy of priests and Mahometans into his hands, he demanded of them half of the money the king had given them to defray the expences of fetching the Abuna. He pretended also, that both Mahometans and Christians should have passed the rainy season at Masuah. He declared that this was his perquisite, and that he had prepared great and exquisite provisions for them, which, being spoiled and become useless, it was but reasonable they should pay as if they had consumed them: till this was settled, he declared that none of them should embark or stir one step from Masuah.
The news of this detention soon arrived at Gondar; and Yasous gave orders that Michael Suhul, governor of Tigré, (afterwards Ras) and the Baharnagash, should with an army blockade Masuah, so as to starve the Naybe into a more reasonable behaviour. But, before this could be executed, the Naybe had called the priests before him, and declared, if they did not surrender the money that instant, he would put them to death; and, in place of giving them time to resolve, he gave them a very plain hint to obey, by ordering the executioner to strike off the heads of two criminals condemned for other crimes, after having brought them into their presence. The poor wretches, Theodorus and Likianos, did not resemble Portuguese, who would have braved these threats in the pursuit of martyrdom. The sight of blood was the most convincing of all arguments the Naybe could use. They gave up the money, leaving the division of it to his own discretion. He then hurried them on board a vessel, giving Michael and the Baharnagash notice that they were gone in safety, and that he had obeyed the king’s orders in all respects. Michael was at that time in the strictest friendship with the Naybe, who was his principal instrument in collecting fire-arms in Arabia to strengthen him in the quarrel he was then meditating against his sovereign.
On the 8th of February 1744 the priests and their guides sailed from Masuah; and they did not arrive at Jidda till the 14th of April. There they found that the ships for Cairo were gone, and that they had lost the monsoon; and, as no misfortune comes single, the Sherriffe of Mecca made a demand upon them for as much money as they had paid the Naybe; and, upon refusal, he put Abdelcader in prison, nor was he released for a twelvemonth after, when the money was sent from Abyssinia; and it was then agreed, that 75 ounces of gold[94] should in all future times be paid for leave of passage to those who went to Cairo to fetch the Abuna; and 90 ounces a piece to the Sherriffe, and to the Naybe, for allowing him to pass when chosen, and furnishing him with necessaries during his stay in their respective government; and this is the agreement that subsists, to this day.
In this interim, Likianos of Azazo, one of the priests, weary of the journey and of his religion, and having quarrelled with Abdulla, renounced the Christian faith, and embraced that of Mahomet; and Theodorus, Abdulla, and Hamet Ali, being the only three remaining, hired a vessel at Jidda to carry them to the port of Suez, the bottom of the Arabic Gulf. Before they had been a month at sea, Abdulla died, as did Hamet Ali seven days after they arrived at Suez. They had been on sea three months and six days from Jidda to that port, because they sailed against the monsoon.
It was the 25th of June that Theodorus arrived at Cairo, delivered the king’s present, the account of the Abuna’s death, and the king’s desire of having speedily a successor. The patriarch, having called together all his bishops, priests, and deacons, conferred the dignity on a monk of the Order of St Anthony, the only Order of monks the Coptic church acknowledges. These pass a very austere life in two convents in a dreary desert, never tasting flesh, but living on olives, salt sardines[95], wild herbs, and the worst of vegetables. Yet so attached are they to this solitude, that, when they are called to be ordained to this prelature of Abyssinia, a warrant from the basha, and a party of Turks, is necessary to bring this elect one to Cairo in chains, where he is kept in prison till he is ordained; guarded afterwards, and then forced on board a vessel which carries him to Abyssinia, whence he is certain never to return.
The Abuna departed from Suez the 20th of September; the beginning of November he arrived at Jidda; in February 1745 he sailed from Jidda, taking with him Abdelcader, now freed from prison; he arrived at Masuah the 7th of March, and immediately sent an express to notify his arrival to the king and queen, and to Ras Welled de l’Oul. Congratulations upon the event were returned from each of them; they requested he would immediately come to court; but this the Naybe refused to permit, till he had first received his dues; and Yasous seemed inclined to pay no more for him than what he had cost already.
The priests, and devout people in Tigré, were very desirous to free the Abuna from his confinement in Masuah. They saw that the king was not inclined to advance money, and all of them knew perfectly, that, whatever face he put upon the matter, the Ras would not give an ounce of gold to prevent the Abuna from staying there all his life. In this exigency they applied to Janni, a Greek, living at Adowa, (of whom I shall hereafter speak), a confidential servant and favourite of Michael, and also well acquainted at Masuah, to see if he could get him released by stratagem. Janni concerted the affair with the monks of the monastery of Bizan, two of whom conducted the Abuna by night out of the island of Masuah, and landed him safely in their monastery in the wilderness, with the myron, or consecrated oil, in one hand, and his missal, or liturgy, in the other. So far the escape was complete; but unluckily no orders had been given for Theodorus, who accordingly remained behind at Masuah.
The Naybe, exasperated at the Abuna’s flight, wrecked his vengeance on poor Theodorus; he put him in irons, and threw him into close prison, where he remained for two months. There was no remedy but paying 80 ounces of gold to the Naybe for his release; he might else have remained there for ever.
The king, not a little surprised at these frequent insolences on the part of the Naybe, began to inquire what could be the reason; for he perfectly knew, not only Suhul Michael, the governor of Tigré, but even the Baharnagash could reduce Masuah to nothing with their little finger; and he was informed, that a strong friendship subsisted between the Naybe and Suhul Michael, and that it was by relying on his friendship that the Naybe adventured to treat the king’s servants, at different times, in the manner he had done.
Yasous, desirous to verify this himself, and to dissolve the bands of so unnatural a friendship, marched into Tigré with a considerable army. Passing by Adowa, the residence of Suhul Michael, he was pleased with the warlike appearance of this his feat of government, and the perfect order and subordination that reigned there. Certain disorders and tumults were said to prevail in the neighbouring province of Enderta where Kasmati Woldo commanded. The savage people, called Azabo, living at Azab, the low country below Enderta and the Dobas, (a nation of Shepherds near them, still more savage, if possible, than them) had laid waste the districts that were next to their frontier, burning the churches, and slaying the priests in the daily inroads which they made into Abyssinia. All these things, bad enough indeed, were at this time aggravated, as was thought, for two reasons; the first was to cast an odium upon Kasmati Woldo, Michael’s great enemy, as incapable of governing his province; the second, to prevent the king in his progress to Masuah, as he openly professed his fixed intention was to punish the Naybe with the utmost severity.
The protection of his subjects, therefore, from the savages, was represented to the king as the most pressing service; and, marching with his usual diligence straight to Enderta, he was met there by Kasmati Woldo, an old experienced officer, who aiming at no preferment, paying his tribute punctually, and having been constantly occupied in repelling the incursions of the Pagans on the frontier, had not been at court since the reign of Theophilus.
After receiving the necessary information about the country he intended to enter, and taking Kasmati Woldo’s two sons with him, the king descended into the low country of Dancali, once a petty Mahometan kingdom, and friendly to Abyssinia, now a mixture of Galla and the natives called Taltal. Without delay he pushed on to Azab, spreading desolation through that little province, always desert enough from its nature, though formerly, from its trade, one of the richest spots in the world.
The king then turned to the right upon the Dobas, who, not expecting an army of that strength, fled and left their whole cattle a prey to Yasous and his soldiers; a greater number was scarce ever seen in Abyssinia. The king now returned to Enderta, where he confirmed Kasmati Woldo in his government with distinguished marks of favour; and he this year again came back victorious to Gondar, leaving his campaign against the Naybe for another season.
In passing by Adowa, a fray happened among the king’s troops and those of Michael; several were killed on both sides; and, as the dispute was between Tigré and Amhara, the two great divisions of the country, it threatened to create a party-quarrel between the soldiers of one division and those of the other. No notice was taken of this when Yasous marched eastward; but, on his return, Michael begged the king to interfere, and make peace between the two parties. To this Yasous answered, That he did not think it worth his while, for they would make peace themselves when they were tired of quarrelling.
Whether this was the motive of sending for Michael to Gondar, or whether it was the story of the Naybe, or what else was the king’s motive, we do not know; but, so soon as he was arrived in the capital, he sent Kasmati Ephraim, and Shalaka Kefla, into Tigré, commanding Michael’s attendance at Gondar. This Michael absolutely refused; he pretended Kasmati Woldo had estranged the king’s affection from him, and that Yasous had called him to Gondar now to put him to death, upon a pretence of his soldiers quarrel with the king’s troops. This refusal was repeated to Yasous, without any palliation whatever; and he instantly marched from Gondar, and encamped upon the river Waar, where he was reinforced a few days afterwards by Ras Welled de l’Oul, whose intention was to persuade Michael to submission; for he had been advised not to trust the king’s oath of forgivenness unless he had likewise that of Welled de l’Oul.
The king’s readiness disconcerted Suhul Michael. Tho’ well armed and appointed himself, as also an excellent general, he did not risk the presenting himself against the king on a plain; for Yasous was much beloved by the soldiers, and always very kind and liberal to them.
The mountain Samayat, though not the most inaccessible in Tigré, was a place of great consequence and strength, when possessed by an army and officer such as Michael. To this natural fortress he carried all his valuable effects, occupied and obstructed all the avenues to it, and resolved there to abide his fortune. The king, with his army, sat down at the foot of the mountain; and, encircling it with troops, he ordered it to be assaulted on four sides at once; on one, by Kasmati Ayo, governor of Begemder; on the second, by Kasmati Waragna; the third, by Kasmati Woldo; and the fourth, by Ras Welled de l’Oul. The king himself went round about to every place, giving his orders, encouraging his men, and fighting himself in the foremost ranks like a common soldier. The mountain was at length carried, with much bloodshed on both sides, and Michael was beat from every part of it but one, which, though not strong enough to hold out against the king’s army, if well defended could not be carried without great loss of men.
Here Michael desired to capitulate. But, before he left the mountain and surrendered to the king, he desired that an officer of trust might be sent to him, because he had then upon the mountain a large collection of treasure, which he desired to keep for the king’s use, otherwise it would be dissipated and lost in the hands of the common soldiers. The Ras sent two confidential officers, who took from the hands of Michael a prodigious sum of gold, the precise amount of which is not named. He then descended the mountain, carrying, as is the custom of the country for vanquished rebels, a stone upon his head, as confessing himself guilty of a capital crime. A violent storm of rain and wind prevented, for that day, his coming into the presence of the king; and the devil, as the Abyssinians believe, began in that storm a correspondence with him which continued many years; I myself have often heard him vaunt of his having maintained, ever since that time, an intercourse with St Michael the archangel.
On the morning of the 27th of December, Ras Welled de l’Oul ordered Michael to attend him in the habit of a penitent; and, followed by his companions in misfortune, (that part of his troops which was taken on the mountain) and surrounded by a number of soldiers, with drums beating and colours flying, he was carried into the king’s presence.
Ras Welled de l’Oul had, with difficulty, engaged the king’s promise that he was not to put him to death. The good genius of Yasous and his family was labouring by one last effort to save him. On seeing Michael upon the ground, Yasous fell into a violent transport of rage, spurned him with his foot, declaring he retracted his promise, and ordered him to be carried out, and put to death before the door of his tent. Ras Welled de l’Oul, Kasmati Waragna, Kasmati Woldo, and all the officers of consideration, either of the court or army, now fell with their faces upon the ground, crying to the king for mercy and forgivenness. Yasous, if in his heart he did not relent, still was obliged to pardon on such universal solicitation; and this he did, after making the following observation, which soon after was looked on as a prophecy: “I have pardoned that traitor at your instance, because I at all times reward merit more willingly than I punish crimes; but I call you all to witness, that I wash my hands before God to-day of all that innocent blood Michael shall shed before he brings about the destruction of his country, which I know in his heart he has been long meditating.”
I cannot help mentioning it as an extraordinary circumstance, that at the time I was at Gondar, in the very height of Suhul Michael’s tyranny, a man quarrelled with another who was a scribe, and accused him before Michael of having recorded this speech of the king, as I have now stated it, in a history that he had written of Yasous’s reign. The book was produced, the passage was found and read; and I certainly expected to have seen it torn to pieces, or hung upon a tree about the author’s neck. On the contrary, all the Ras said was, “If what he writes is true, wherein is the man to blame?” And turning with a grin to Tecla Haimanout, one of the judges, he said, “Do you remember? I do believe Yasous did say so.” The book was restored to the author, and no more said of the matter, not even an order was given to erase the passage. He had no objection to Yasous and to his whole race being prophets; he had only taken a resolution that they should not be kings.
A general silence followed this speech of Yasous, instead of the acclamations of joy usual in such cases. The king then ordered Ras Welled de l’Oul to lead the army on to Gondar, which he did with great pomp and military parade, while the king, who could not forget his forebodings, retired to an island, there to fast some days in consequence of a vow that he had made. This being finished, Yasous returned to Gondar; and, as he was now in perfect peace throughout his kingdom, he began again to decorate the apartments of his palace. A large number of mirrors had arrived at this time, a present from the Naybe of Masuah, who, after what had happened to his friend Michael, began to feel a little uneasy about the fate of his island.
While Yasous was thus employed, news were sent him from Kasmati Ayo, governor of Begemder, that he had beat the people of Lasta in a pitched battle in their own country, had forced their strong-holds, dispersed their troops, and received the general submission of the province, which had been in rebellion since the time of Hatzè Socinios, that is, above 100 years. Immediately after these news, came Ayo himself to parade and throw his unclean trophies of victory before the king, and brought with him many of the principal people of Lasta to take the oaths of allegiance to the king.
Yasous received the accounts of the success with great pleasure, and still more so the oaths and submissions made to him. He then added Lasta to the province of Begemder, and cloathed Ayo magnificently, as well as all those noblemen that came with him from Lasta. The end of this year was not marked with good fortune like the beginning. A plague of locusts fell upon the country, and consumed every green thing, so that a famine seemed to be inevitable, because, contrary to their custom, they had attached themselves chiefly to the grain. This plague is not so frequent in Abyssinia as the Jesuits have reported it to be. These good fathers indeed bring the locusts upon the country, that, by their pretended miracles, they may chace them away.
Michael had continued some time in prison, in the custody of Ras Welled de l’Oul. But he was afterwards set at full liberty; and it was now the 17th year of Yasous’s reign, when, on the 17th of September 1746, at a great promotion of officers of state, Michael, by the nomination of the king himself, was restored to his government of Tigré; and, a few days after, he returned to that province. All his ancient friends and troops flocked to him as soon as he appeared, to welcome him upon an event looked upon by all as nearly miraculous. Nor did Michael discourage that idea himself, but gave it to be understood, among his most intimate friends, that a vision had allured him that he was thenceforward under the immediate protection of St Michael the archangel, with whom he was to consult on every emergency.
As soon as he had got a sufficient army together, the first thing he did was to attack Kasmati Woldo, without any provocation whatever; and, after beating him in two battles, he drove him from his province, and forced him to take refuge among the Galla, where, soon after, by employing small presents, he procured him to be murdered; the ordinary fate of those who seek protection among those faithless barbarians.
It will seem extraordinary that the king, who had such recent experience of both, the one distinguished for his duty, the other for his obstinate rebellion, should yet tamely suffer his old and faithful servant to fall before a man whom in his heart he so much mistrusted. But the truth is, all Michael’s danger was past the moment he got free access to the king and queen, though he was deservedly esteemed to be the ablest soldier in Abyssinia of his time, he was infinitely more capable in intrigues, and private negociations at court, than he was in the field, being a pleasant and agreeable speaker in common conversation; a powerful and copious orator at council; his language, whether Amharic or Tigré, (but above all the latter) correct and elegant above any man’s at court; steady to the measures he adopted, but often appearing to give them up easily, and without passion, when he saw, by the circumstances of the times, he could not prevail: though violent in the pursuit of riches, when in his own province, where he spared no means nor man to procure them, no sooner had he come to Gondar than he was lavish of his money to extreme; and indeed he set no value upon it farther than as it served to corrupt men to his ends.
When he surrendered his treasure at the mountain Samayat, he is said to have divided it into several parcels with his own hand. The greatest share fell to the king, who thought he had got the whole; but the officers who received it, and saw different quantities destined for the Iteghé and Ras Welled de l’Oul, took care to convey them their share, for fear of making powerful enemies. Kasmati Waragna had his part; and even Kasmati Woldo, though Michael soon after plundered and slew him. All Gondar were his friends, because all that capital was bribed on this occasion. It was gold he only lent them, to resume it, (as he afterwards did) with great interest, at a proper time.
It still remained in the king’s breast to wipe off his defeat at Sennaar, as he had, upon every other occasion, been victorious; and even in this, he still flattered himself he had not been beat in person. He set out again upon another expedition to Atbara; instead of coasting along the Dender, he descended along the Tacazzé into Atbara, where, finding no resistance among the Shepherds, he attached himself in particular to the tribe called Daveina, which, in the former expedition, had joined Welled de l’Oul’s army. Upon the first news of his approach they had submitted; but, notwithstanding all promises and pretences of peace, he fell upon them unawares, and almost extirpated the tribe.
Suhul Michael, while the king was thus occupied in the frontier of his province, did every thing that a faithful, active subject could do. He furnished him constantly with the best intelligence, supplied him with the provisions he wanted, and made, from time to time, strong detachments of troops to reinforce him, and to secure such posts as were most commodious and important in case of a retreat becoming necessary.
Yasous, who had succeeded to his wish, was fully sensible of the value of such services, and sent, therefore, for Michael, commanding his attendance at Gondar. There was no fear, no hesitation now, as before in the affair of Samayat. He decamped upon the first notice, even before the rainy season was over, and arrived at Gondar on August 30th 1747, bringing with him plenty of gold; few soldiers, indeed, but those picked men, and in better order, than the king had ever yet seen troops.
It was plain now to everybody, that nothing could stop Michael’s growing fortune. He alone seemed not sensible of this. He was humbler and less assuming than before. Those whom he had first bribed he continued still to bribe, and added as many new friends to that list as he thought could serve him. He pretended to no precedency or pre-eminence at court, not even such as was due to the rank of his place, but behaved as a stranger that had no fixed abode among them.
One day, dining with Kasmati Geta, the queen’s brother, who was governor of Samen, and drinking out of a common-glass decanter called Brulhé, when it is the privilege and custom of the governor of Tigré to use a gold cup, being asked, Why he did not claim his privilege? he said, All the gold he had was in heaven, alluding to the name of the mountain Samayat, where his gold was surrendered, which word signifies Heaven. The king, who liked this kind of jests, of which Michael was full, on hearing this, sent him a gold cup, with a note written and placed within it, “Happy are they who place their riches in heaven;” which Michael directed immediately to be engraved by one of the Greeks upon the cup itself. What became of it I know not; I often wished to have found it out, and purchased it. I saw it the first day he dined, after coming from council, at his return from Tigré, after the execution of Abba Salama; but I never observed it at Serbraxos, nor since. I heard, indeed, a Greek say he had sent it by Ozoro Esther, as a present to a church of St Michael in Tigré.
Enderta was now given him in addition to the province of Tigré, and, soon after, Siré and all the provinces between the Tacazzé and the Red Sea; so he was now master of near half of Abyssinia.
The rest of this king’s reign was spent at home in his usual amusements and occupations. Several small expeditions were made by his command, under Palambaras Selassé, and other officers, to harrass the Shepherds, whom he conquered almost down to Suakem. His ravages, however, had been confined to the peninsula of Atbara, and had not ever passed to the eastward of the Tacazzé, but he had impoverished all that country. After this, by his orders, the Baharnagash, and other officers, entered that division called Derkin, between the Mareb and the Atbara, and, still further, between the Mareb and the mountains, in a part of it called Ajam. In this country Hassine Wed Ageeb was defeated by the Baharnagash with great slaughter; and the Shekh of Jibbel Musa, one of the most powerful of the Shepherds, was taken prisoner by Palambaras Selassé, without resistance, and carried, with his wife, his family, and cattle, in triumph to Gondar, where, having sworn allegiance to the king, he was kindly treated, and sent home with presents, and every thing that had been taken from him.
This year, being the 24th of Yasous’s reign, he was taken ill, and died on the 21st day of June 1753, after a very short illness. As he was but a young man, and of a strong constitution, there was some suspicion he died by poison given him by the queen’s relations, who were desirous to secure another minority rather than serve under a king, who, by every action, shewed he was no longer to be led or governed by any, but least of all by them.
Yasous was married very young to a lady of noble family in Amhara, by whom he had two sons, Adigo and Aylo. But their mother pretending to a share of her husband’s government, and to introduce her friends at court, so hurt Welleta Georgis the Iteghé, or queen-regent, that she prevailed on the king to banish both the mother and sons to the mountain of Wechné.
In order to prevent such interference for the future, the Iteghé took a step, the like of which had never before been attempted in Abyssinia. It was to bring a wife to Yasous from a race of Galla. Her name was Wobit, daughter of Amitzo, to whom Bacuffa had once fled when he escaped from the mountain before he was king, and had been kindly entertained there. Her family was of the tribe of Edjow, and the division of Toluma, that is, of the southern Galla upon the frontiers of Amhara. They were esteemed the politest, that is, the least barbarous of the name. But it was no matter, they were Galla, and that was enough. Between them and Abyssinia, oceans of blood had been shed, and strong prejudices imbibed against them, never to be effaced by marriages. She was, however, brought to Gondar, christened by the name of Bessabéc, and married to Yasous: By her he had a son, named Joas, who succeeded his father.
JOAS.
From 1753 to 1768.This Prince a Favourer of the Galla his Relations—Great Dissentions on bringing them to Court—War of Begemder—Ras Michael brought to Gondar—Defeats Ayo—Mariam Barea refuses to be accessary to his Death—King favours Waragna Fasil—Battle of Azazo—King Assassinated in his Palace.
Upon the first news of the death of king Yasous, the old officers and servants of the crown, remembering the tumults and confusion that happened in Gondar at his accession, repaired to the palace from their different governments, each with a small well-regulated body of troops, sufficient to keep order, and strengthen the hands of Ras Welled de l’Oul, whom they all looked upon as the father of his country. The first who arrived was Kasmati Waragna of Damot; then Ayo of Begemder, and very soon after, though at much the greatest distance, Suhul Michael, governor of Tigré. These three entered the palace, with Welled de l’Oul at their head, and received the young king Joas from the hands of the Iteghé his grandmother, and proclaimed him king, with the usual formalities, without any opposition or tumult whatever.
A number of promotions immediately followed; but it was observed with great discontent by many, that the Iteghé’s family and relations were grown now so numerous, that they were sufficient to occupy all the great offices of state without the participation of any of the old families, which were the strength of the crown in former reigns; and that now no preferment was to be expected unless through some relation to the queen-mother.
Welled Hawarayat, son to Michael governor of Tigré, had married Ozoro Altash, the queen’s third daughter, almost a child; and long before that, Netcho of Tcherkin had married Ozoro Esther, likewise very young; and Ras Michael, old as he was, had made known his pretensions to Ozoro Welleta Israel, the queen’s second daughter, immediately younger than Ozoro Esther. These proposals, from an old man, had been received with great contempt and derision by Welleta Israel, and she persevered so long in the derision of Michael’s courtship, that it left strong impressions on the hard heart of that old warrior, which shewed themselves after in very disagreeable consequences to that lady all the time Michael was in power.
The first that broke the peace of this new reign was Nanna Georgis, chief of one of the clans of Agows of Damot. Engaged in old feuds with the Galla on the other side of the Nile, the natural enemies of his country, he could not see, but with great displeasure, a Galla such as Kasmati Waragna, however worthy, governor of Damot, and capable, therefore, of over-running the whole province in a moment, by calling his Pagan countrymen from the other side.
Waragna, though this was in his power, knew the measure was unpopular. Kasmati Eshté was the queen’s brother, and governor of Ibaba, a royal residence, which has a large territory and salary annexed to it. When, therefore, at council, he had complained of the injury done to him by Nanna Georgis, he refused the taking upon him the redressing these injuries, and punishing the Agows, unless Kasmati Eshté was joined in the commission with him.
The reason of this was, as I have often before observed, that, as the Agows are those that pay the greatest tribute in gold to the king, and furnish the capital with all sorts of provisions, any calamity happening in their country is severely felt by the inhabitants of Gondar; and the knowledge of this occasions a degree of presumption and confidence in the Agows, of which they have been very often the dupes. This, indeed, happened at this very instant. For Waragna and Eshtè marched from Gondar, and with them a number of veteran troops of the king’s household of Maitsha, depending on Ibaba; and this army, without bringing one Galla from the other side of the Nile, gave Nanna Georgis and his Agows such an overthrow that his clan was nearly extirpated, and many of the principal of that nation slain.
Nanna Georgis, who chiefly was aimed at as the author of this revolt, escaped, with great difficulty, wounded, from the field; and the feud which had long subsisted between Waragna’s family and the race of the Agows, received great addition that day, and came down to their posterity, as we shall soon see by what happened in Waragna’s son’s time at the bloody and fatal battle of Banja.
The next affair that called the attention of government, was a complaint brought by the monks of Magwena, a ridge of rocks of but small extent not far from Tcherkin, the estate of Kasmati Netcho. These mountains, for a great part of the year, almost calcined under a burning sun, have, in several months, violent and copious showers of rain, which, received in vast caves and hollows of the mountain, and out of the reach of evaporation, are means of creating and maintaining all sorts of verdure and all scenes of pleasure, in the hot season of the year, when the rains do not fall elsewhere; and as the rocks have a considerable elevation above the level of the plain, they are at no season infected with those feverish disorders that lay the low country waste.
Netcho was a man of pleasure, and he thought, since the monks, by retiring to rocks and deserts, meant thereby to subject themselves to hardship and mortification, that these delightful and flowery scenes, the groves of Magwena, were much more suited to the enjoyment of happiness with the young and beautiful Ozoro Esther, than for any set of men, who by their austerities were at constant war with the flesh. Upon these principles, which it would be very difficult for the monks themselves to refute, he took possession of the mountain Magwena, and of those bowers that, though in possession of saints, did not seem to have been made for the solitary pleasures of one sex only. This piece of violence was, by the whole body of monks, called Sacrilege. Violent excommunications, and denunciations of divine vengeance, were thundered out against Kasmati Netcho. An army was sent against him; he was defeated and taken prisoner, and confined upon a mountain in Walkayt, where soon after he died, but not before the Iteghè had shewn her particular mark of displeasure, by taking her daughter Ozoro Esther, his wife, from him, that she, too, and her only son Confu, might not be involved in the monk’s excommunications, and the imputed crime of sacrilege.
At this time died Kasmati Waragna, full of years and glory, having, though a stranger, preserved his allegiance to the last, and more than once saved the state by his wisdom, bravery, and activity. He is almost a single example in their history, of a great officer, governor of a province, that never was in rebellion, and a remarkable instance of Bacuffa’s penetration, who, from a single conversation with him, while engaged in the vilest employment, chose him as capable of the greatest offices, in which he usefully served both his son and grandson.
Soon after, Ayo governor of Begemder, an older officer still than Waragna, arrived in Gondar, and resigned his government into the queen’s hands. This resignation was received, because it was understood that it was directly to be conferred upon his son Mariam Barea, by far the most hopeful young Abyssinian nobleman of his time. Another mark of favour, soon followed, perhaps was the occasion of this. Ozoro Esther, the very young widow of Netcho, was married, very much against her own consent, to the young governor of Begemder, and this marriage was crowned with the universal applause of court, town, and country; for Mariam Barea possessed every virtue that could make a great man popular; and it was impossible to see Ozoro Esther, and hear her speak, without being attached to her for ever after.
Still the complaint remained, that there was no promotion, no distinction of merit, but through some relation to the queen-mother; and the truth of this was soon so apparent, and the discontent it occasioned so universal, that nothing but the great authority Ras Welled de l’Oul, the Iteghé’s brother, possessed, could hinder this concealed fire from breaking out into a flame.
The queen, mother to Joas, was Ozoro Wobit, a Galla. Upon Joas’s accession to the throne, therefore, a large body of Galla, said to be 1200 horse, were sent as a present to the young king as the portion of his mother. A number of private persons had accompanied these; part from curiosity, part from desire of preferment, and part from attachment to those that were already gone before them. These last were formed into a body of infantry of 600 men, and the command given to a Galla, whose name was Woosheka; so that the regency, in the person of the queen, seemed to have gained fresh force from the minority of the young king Joas, as yet perfectly subject to his mother.
There were four bodies of household troops absolutely devoted to the king’s will. One of these, the Koccob horse, was commanded by a young Armenian not 30 years of age. He had been left in Abyssinia by his father in Yasous’s time, and care had been taken of him by the Greeks. Yasous had distinguished him by several places while a mere youth, and employed him in errands to Masuah and Arabia, by which he became known to Ras Michael. Upon the death of Yasous, the Iteghè put him about her grandson Joas, as Baalomal, which is, gentleman of the bed-chamber, or, companion to the king. He then became Asaleffa el Camisha, which means groom of the stole, but at last was promoted to the great place of Billetana Gueta Dakakin, chamberlain, or master of the household, the third post in government, by which he took place of all the governors of provinces while in Gondar.
There is no doubt Joas would have made him Ras, if he had reigned as long as his father. Besides his own language, he understood Turkish, Arabic, and Malabar, and was perfect master of the Tigré. But his great excellence was his knowledge of Amharic, which he was thought to speak as chastely and elegantly as Ras Michael himself. He is reported likewise to have possessed a species of jurisprudence, whence derived I never knew, which so pleased the Abyssinians, that the judges often requested his attendance on the king; at which time he sat at the head of the table, where it is supposed the king would place himself did he appear personally in judgment, (which, as it may be learned from divers places in this history, he never does); certain mornings in the week, therefore, he sat publicly in the market-place, and gave judgment soon after the break of day.
I saw this young man with his father at Loheia. He understood no European language; was just then returned from India, and had a considerable quantity of diamonds, and other precious stones, to sell. He spoke with tears in his eyes of Abyssinia, from which he was banished, and urged that I should take him there with me. But I had too much at stake to charge myself with the consequences of anybody’s behaviour but my own, and therefore refused it.
The great favour the Galla were in at court encouraged many of their countrymen to follow them; and, by the king’s desire, two of his uncles were sent for, and they not only came, but brought with them a thousand horse. These were two young men, brothers of the queen Wobit, just now dead. The eldest was named Brulhé, the younger Lubo. In an instant, nothing was heard in the palace but Galla. The king himself affected to speak nothing else. He had entirely intrusted the care of his person to his two uncles; and, both being men of intrigue, they thought themselves sufficiently capable to make a party, support it, and place the king at the head of it; and this they effected as soon as it was conceived, whilst the Abyssinians saw, with the utmost detestation and abhorrence, a Gallan and inimical government erected in the very heart or metropolis of their country.
Woodage had been long governor of Amhara. He had succeeded Palambaras Duré in Bacuffa’s time, when he had been promoted to the dignity of Ras.
These two were heads of the only great families in Amhara, who took that government as it were by rotation. Woodage, in one of the excursions into Atbara, had made an Arab’s, or a Shepherd’s daughter, prisoner, baptized her, and lived with her as his mistress. The passion Woodage bore to this fair slave was not, however, reciprocal. She had fixed her affections upon his eldest son, and their frequent familiarities at last brought about the discovery. This very much shocked Woodage; but, instead of having recourse to public justice, he called his brothers, and some other heads of his family before him, and examined into the fact with them, desiring his son to defend himself. The crime was clearly proved in all its circumstances. Upon which Woodage, by his own authority, condemned his son to death; and not only so, but caused his sentence to be put in execution, by hanging the young man over a beam in his own house. As for the slave, he released her, as not being bound to any return of affection to him, from whom she had only received evil, and been deprived of her natural liberty.
It seems this claim of patria potestas was new in Abyssinia; and Bacuffa took it so ill, that he deprived Woodage of his office, and banished him to Amhara, then governed by Palambaras Duré. To this loss of influence another circumstance contributed. He was a relation of Yasous’s first wife, who, by the Iteghé’s intrigues, had been sent with her two sons to the mountain of Wechné, and Joas, a young son of Yasous, preferred in their places.
It happened that Palambaras Duré died; and as the succession fell regularly upon the unpopular Woodage, the king’s uncle, Lubo obtained a promise of the government of Amhara for himself. All Gondar was shocked at this strange choice: Amitzo and his Edjow were already upon the southern frontiers of that province, domiciled there; and there was no doubt but this nomination would put Amhara into his possession for ever. All the inhabitants of Gondar were ready to run to their arms to oppose this appointment of the king; and it was thought that, underhand, the Iteghè fomented this dissatisfaction. The king, however, terrified by the violent resentment of the populace, at the instance of Ras Welled de l’Oul, recalled his nomination.
At this time Michael, who saw the consequence of these disputes, but abstained from taking any share, because he knew that both parties were promoting his interest by their mutual animosity, came to Gondar in great pomp, upon an honourable errand.
Baady, son of l’Oul, king of Funge, or, as they are called in the Abyssinian annals, Noba[96], who had defeated Yasous at Sennaar, after a tyrannical and bloody reign of thirty-three years, was deposed in 1764 by Nasser his son, whom his minister Shekh Adelan, with his brother Abou Kalec, governor of Kordofan, had put in his place; and Baady had fled to Suhul Michael, whose fame was extended all over Atbara. Michael received him kindly, promised him his best services with Joas, and that he would march in person to Sennaar, and reinstate him with an army, if the king should so command.
Michael conducted him into the presence of the king, where, in a manner unbecoming a sovereign, and which Joas’s successor would not have permitted, he kissed the ground, and declared himself a vassal of Abyssinia. The king assigned him a large revenue, and put him in possession of the government of Ras el Feel upon the frontier of Sennaar, where Ras Welled de l’Oul advised him to wait patiently till the dissensions that then prevailed at court were quieted, when Michael should have orders to reinstate him in his kingdom. This was a wise counsel, but he to whom it was given was not wise, and therefore did not follow it. After some short stay at Ras el Feel he was decoyed from this place of refuge by the intrigues of Adelan, and brought to trust himself in Atbara, where he was betrayed and taken prisoner by Welled Hassen, Shekh of Teawa, and murdered by him in Teawa privately, as we shall hereafter see, two years after his flight from Gondar.
At this time, Ras Welled de l’Oul’s death was a signal for all parties to engage. Nothing had withheld them but his prudence and authority; and from that time began a scene of civil blood, which has continued ever since, was in its full vigour at the time when I was in Abyssinia, and without any prospect that it would ever have an end.
The great degree of power to which the brothers and their Galla arrived; the great affection the king shewed to them, owing to their having early infected him with their bloody and faithless principles, gave great alarm to the queen and her relations, whose influence they were every day diminishing. The last stroke, the death of Welled de l’Oul, seemed to be a fatal one, and to threaten the entire dissolution of her power. In order to counterbalance this, they associated to their party and council Mariam Barea, who had lately married Ozoro Esther, and was in possession of the second province in the state for riches and for power, and greatly increased in its importance by the officer that commanded it. Upon the death of Welled de l’Oul, the principal fear the party of the Galla had was, that Mariam Barea should be brought to Gondar as Ras. The union between him and Kasmati Eshtè, formerly as strong by inclination as now it was by blood, put them in terror for their very existence, and a stroke was to be struck at all hazards that was to separate these interests for ever.
Eshte, upon taking possession of the province of Damot, found the Djawi, established upon the frontiers of the province, very much inclined to revolt. Notwithstanding peace had been established among the Agows ever since Nanna Georgis had been defeated at the last battle, the Galla had still continued to rob and distress them, contrary to the public faith that had been pledged to them.
Eshte was too honest a man to suffer this; but the truth was, the Djawi had felt the advantage of having a man like the late Waragna governor of Damot; and they wanted, by all means, to reduce the ministers to the necessity of making that command hereditary in his family, by Fasil his son being preferred to succeed him.
This Fasil, whom I shall hereafter call Waragna Fasil, a name which was given to distinguish him from many other Fasils in the army, was a man then about twenty-two, whom Eshté had kept about him in a private station, and had lately given him a subaltern command among his own countrymen, the Djawi of Damot. From the services that he had then rendered, it was expected a greater preferment was to follow.
The insolence of the Djawi had come to such a pitch that they had offered Eshté battle; but they had fled with very little resistance, and been driven over the Nile to their countrymen whence they came. Eshté, roused from his indolence, now shewed himself the gallant soldier that he really was. He crossed the Nile at a place never attempted before; and though he lost a considerable number of men in the passage, yet that disadvantage was more than compensated by the advantage it gave him of falling upon the Galla unexpectedly. He therefore destroyed, or dispersed several tribes of them, possessed himself of their crops, drove off their cattle, wives, and children, and obliged them to sue for peace on his own terms; and then repassed the Nile, re-establishing the Djawi, after submission, in their ancient possessions.
Upon news of Welled de l’Oul’s death, and the known intention of the queen that Eshté should succeed him in the office of Ras, he was mustering his soldiers to march to Gondar: Damot, the Agows, Goutto, and Maitsha, all readily joined him from every quarter; and Waragna Fasil had been sent to bring in the Djawi with the rest. Eshtè had marched by slow journies from Buré, slenderly attended, to arrive at Goutto the place of rendezvous; and, being come to Fagitta, in his way thither, he encamped upon a plain there, near to the church of St George.
It was in the evening, when news were brought him that the whole Djawi had come out, to a man, from goodwill, to attend him to Gondar. This mark of kindness had very much pleased him; and he looked upon it as a grateful return for his mild treatment of them after they were vanquished. A stool was set in the shade, without a small house where he then was lodged, that he might see the troops pass; when Hubna Fasil, a Galla, who commanded them, availing himself of the privilege of approaching near, always customary upon these occasions, run him through the body with a lance, and threw him dead upon the ground. The rest of the Galla fell immediately upon all his attendants, put them to flight, and proclaimed Waragna Fasil governor of Damot and the Agows.
This intelligence was immediately sent to their countrymen, Brulhé and Lubo, at Gondar, who prevailed upon the king to confirm Waragna Fasil in his command, though purchased with the murder of the worthiest man in his dominions, who was his own uncle, brother to the Iteghè; and this was thought to more than counterbalance the accession of strength the queen’s party had received from the marriage of Ozoro Esther with Mariam Barea.
In critical times like these, the greatest events are produced from the smallest accidents. Ayo, father to Mariam Barea, had always been upon bad terms with Michael. It was at first emulation between two great men; but, after Ayo had assisted the king in taking Michael prisoner at the mountain Samayat, this emulation had degenerated into perfect hatred on the part of Michael.
Just before Kasmati Ayo had resigned Begemder to his son, and retired to private life, two servants of Michael had fled with two swords, which they used to carry before him, claiming the protection of Kasmati Ayo. Michael had claimed them before the king, who, loath to determine between the two, not being at that time instigated by Galla, had accepted the proposal of Michael to have the matter of right tried before the judges; but, upon his resignation of the province, and retiring, the thing had blown over and been forgotten.
Soon after this accession of Mariam Barea, Michael intimated to him the order the king had given that the judges should try the matter of difference between them. Mariam Barea refused this, and upbraided Michael with meanness and prostitution of the dignity he bore, to consent to submit himself to the venal judgment of weak old men, whose consciences were hackneyed in prejudice or partiality, and always known to be under the influence of party. He put Suhul Michael in mind also, that, being both of them the king’s lieutenant-generals, representatives of his person in the provinces they governed, noble by birth, and soldiers by profession, they had no superior but God and their sovereign, therefore it was below them to acknowledge or receive any judgment between them unless from God, by an appeal to the sword, or from the king, by a sentence intimated to them by a proper officer; that Suhul Michael might choose either of these manners of deciding the difference as should seem best unto him; and if he chose the latter, of abiding by the sentence of the king, he would then restore him the swords upon the king’s first command, but he despised the judges, and disowned their jurisdiction.
This spirited answer was magnified into the crime of disobedience and rebellion. Michael pursued it no further. He knew it was in good hands, which, when once the matter was set agoing, would never let it drop. Accordingly, to every one’s surprise but Michael’s, a proclamation was made, that the king had deprived Mariam Barea of his government for disobedience, and had given it to Kasmati Brulhé his uncle, now governor of Begemder.
All Abyssinia was in a ferment at this promotion. The number, power, and vicinity of that race of Galla being considered, this was but another way of giving the richest and strongest barrier of Abyssinia into the hands of his hereditary and bloody enemy. There could be no doubt, indeed, but that, as soon as Brulhé should have taken possession of his government, it would be instantly over-run by the united force of that savage and Pagan nation; and there was nothing afterwards to avert danger from the metropolis, for the boundaries of Begemder reach within a very short day’s journey of Gondar.
Mariam Barea, one of the noblest in point of birth in the country where he lived, setting every private consideration aside, was too good a citizen to suffer a measure so pernicious to take place quietly in his time, while the province was under his command. But, besides this, he considered himself as degraded and materially hurt both in honour and in interest, and very sensibly felt the affront of being, himself and his kindred, subjected to a race of Pagans whom he had so often overthrown in the field.
The king’s army marched, under the command of his uncle Brulhé, to take possession of his government; it was with much difficulty, indeed, that Joas could be kept from appearing in person, but he was left under the inspection and tuition of his uncle Lubo, at Gondar. Brulhé made very slow advances; his army several times assembled, as often disbanded of itself; and near a year was spent before he could move from his camp on the lake Tzana, with a force capable of shewing or maintaining itself in Begemder, from the frontiers of which he was not half a day’s journey.
Mariam Barea remained all this time inactive in Begemder, attending to the ordinary duties of his office, with a perfect contempt of Brulhé and his proceedings. But, in the interim, he left no means untried to pacify the king, and dissuade him from a measure he saw would be ruinous to the state in general.
Mariam Barea, though young, had the prudence and behaviour of a man of advanced years. He was esteemed, without comparison, the bravest soldier and best general in the kingdom, except old Suhul Michael, his hereditary rival and enemy. But his manners were altogether different from those of Michael. He was open, chearful, and unreserved; liberal, even to excess, but not from any particular view of gaining reputation by it; as moderate in the use of victory as indefatigable to obtain it; temperate in all his pleasures; easily brought to forgive, and that forgivenness always sincere; a steady observer of his word, even in trifles; and distinguished for two things very uncommon in Abyssinia, regularity in his devotions, and constancy to one wife, which never was impeached. In his last remonstrance, after many professions of his duty and obedience, he put the king in mind, that, at his investiture, “The laws of the country imposed upon him an oath which he took in presence of his majesty, and, after receiving the holy sacrament, that he was not to suffer any Galla in Begemder, but rather, if needful, die with sword in hand to prevent it; that he considered the contravening that oath as a deliberate breach of the allegiance which he owed to God and to his sovereign, and of the trust reposed in him by his country; that the safety of the princes of the royal family, sequestered upon the mountain of Wechné, depended upon the observance of this oath; that otherwise they would be in constant danger of being extirpated by Pagans, as they had already nearly been in former ages, at two different times, upon the rocks Damo and Geshen; he begged the king, if, unfortunately, he could not be reconciled to him, to give his command to Kasmati Geta, Kasmati Eusebius, or any Abyssinian nobleman, in which case he would immediately resign, and retire to private life with his old father.”
He concluded by saying, that, “As he had formed a resolution, he thought it his duty to submit it to the king; that, if his majesty was resolved to march and lead the army himself, he would retire till he was stopt by the frontiers of the Galla, and the farthest limits of Begemder; and, so far from molesting the army in their route, the king might be assured, that, though his own men should be straitened, abundance of every kind of provision and refreshment should be left in his majesty’s route. But if, contrary to his wish, troops of Galla, commanded by a Galla, should come to take possession of his province, he would fight them at the well of Fernay[97], before one Galla should drink there, or advance a pike-length into Begemder.”
This declaration was, by orders of Ras Michael, entered into the Deftar, and written in letters of gold, after Mariam Barea’s death, no doubt at the instigation of Ozoro Esther, jealous for the reputation of her dead husband. It is intitled, the dutiful declaration of the governor of Begemder; and is signed by two Umbares, or judges. Whether the original was so or not, I cannot say.
The return made to this by the king was of the harshest kind, full of taunts and scoffs, and presumptuous confidence; announcing the speedy arrival of Brulhé, as to a certain victory; and, to shew what further assistance he trusted in, he ordered Ras Michael to be proclaimed governor of Samen, the province on the Gondar side of the Tacazzé, that no obstacle might be left in the way of that general from Tigré, if it should be resolved upon to call him.
In Abyssinia there is a kind of glass bottle, very light, and of the size, shape, and strength of a Florence wine-flask; only the neck is wider, like that of our glass decanters, twisted for ornament sake, and the lips of it folded back, such as we call cannon-mouthed. These are made at Trieste on the Adriatic; and thousands of packages of these are brought from Arabia to Gondar, where they are in use for all liquors, which are clear enough to bear the glass, such as wine and spirits. They are very thin and fragil, and are called brulhé. Mariam Barea, provoked at being so undervalued as he was in the king’s message, returned only for answer, “Still the king had better take my advice, and not send his brulhé’s here; they are but weak, and the rocks about Begemder hard; at any rate, they do right to move slowly, otherwise they might break by the way.”
As soon as this defiance was reported to the king and his counsellors all was in a flame, and orders given to march immediately. The whole of the king’s household, consisting of 8000 veteran troops, were ordered to join the army of Brulhé. This, tho’ it added to the display of the army, contributed nothing to the real strength of it; for all, excepting the Galla, were resolved neither to shed their own blood nor that of their brethren, under the banners of so detested a leader.
This was not unknown to Mariam Barea; but neither the advantage of the ground, the knowledge of Brulhé’s weakness, nor any other consideration, could induce him to take one step, or harrass his enemy, out of his own province; nor did he suffer a musket to be fired, or a horse to charge, till Brulhé’s van was drawn up on the brink of the well Fernay. After he had placed the horse of the province of Lasta opposite to the Edjow Galla, against whom his design was, the armies joined, and the king’s troops immediately gave way. The Edjow, however, engaged fiercely and in great earnest with the horse of Lasta, an enemy fully as cruel and savage as themselves, but much better horsemen, better armed, and better soldiers. The moment the king’s troops turned their backs, the trumpets from Mariam Barea’s army forbade the pursuit; while the rest of the Begemder horse, who knew the intention of their general, surrounded the Edjow, and cut them to pieces, though valiantly fighting to the last man.
Brulhé fell, among the herd of his countrymen, not distinguished by any action of valour. Mariam Barea had given the most express orders to take him alive; or, if that could not be, to let him escape; but by no means to kill him. But a menial servant of his, more willing to revenge his master’s wrongs than adopt his moderation, forced his way through the crowd of Galla, where he saw Brulhé fighting; and, giving him two wounds through his body with a lance, left him dead upon the field, bringing away his horse along with him to his master as a token of his victory. Mariam Barea, upon hearing that Brulhé was dead, foresaw in a moment what would infallibly be the consequence, and exclaimed in great agitation, “Michael and all the army of Tigré will march against me before autumn.”
He was not in this a false prophet; for no sooner was Brulhé’s defeat and death known, than the king, from resentment, fear the fatal ruler of weak minds, the constant instigation of Lubo, and the remnant of Brulhé’s party, declared there was no safety but in Ras Michael. An express was therefore immediately sent to him, commanding his attendance, and conferring upon him the office of Ras, by which he became invested with supreme power, both civil and military. This was an event Michael had long wished for. He had nearly as long foreseen that it must happen, and would involve both king and queen, and their respective parties, equally in destruction; but he had not spent his time merely in reflection, he had made every preparation possible, and was ready. So soon then as he received the king’s orders, he prepared to march from Adowa with 26,000 men, all the best soldiers in Abyssinia, about 10,000 of whom were armed with firelocks.
It happened that two Azages, and several other great officers, were sent to him into Tigré with these orders, and to invest him with the government of Samen. Upon their mentioning the present situation of affairs, Michael sharply reflected upon the king’s conduct, and that of those who had counselled him, which must end in the ruin of his family and the state in general. He highly extolled Mariam Barea as the only man in Abyssinia that knew his duty, and had courage to persevere in it. As for himself, being the king’s servant, he would obey his commands, whatever they were, faithfully, and to the letter; but, as holding now the first place in council, he must plainly tell him the ruin of Mariam Barea would be speedily and infallibly followed by that of his country.
After this declaration, Michael decamped with his army encumbered by no baggage, not even provisions, women, or tents, nor useless beasts of burden. His soldiers, attentive only to the care of their arms, lived freely and licentiously upon the miserable countries through which they passed, and which they laid wholly waste as if belonging to an enemy.
He advanced, by equal, steady, and convenient marches, in diligence, but not in haste. Not content with the subsistence of his troops, he laid a composition of money upon all those districts within a day’s march of the place through which he passed; and, upon this not being readily complied with, he burnt the houses to the ground, and slaughtered the inhabitants. Woggora, the granary of Gondar, full of rich large towns and villages, was all on fire before him; and that capital was filled with the miserable inhabitants, stript of every thing, flying before Ras Michael as before an army of Pagans. The king’s understanding was now restored to him for an instant; he saw clearly the mischief his warmth had occasioned, and was truly sensible of the rash step he had taken by introducing Michael. But the dye was cast; repentance was no longer in season; his all was at stake, and he was tied to abide the issue.
Michael, with his army in order of battle, approached Gondar with a very warlike appearance. He descended from the high lands of Woggora into the valleys which surround the capital, and took possession of the rivers Kahha and Angrab, which run through these valleys, and which alone supply Gondar with water. He took post at every entrance into the town, and every place commanding those entrances, as if he intended to besiege it. This conduct struck all degrees of people with terror, from the king and queen down to the lowest inhabitant. All Gondar passed an anxious night, fearing a general massacre in the morning; or that the town would be plundered, or laid under some exorbitant ransom, capitation, or tribute.
But this was not the real design of Michael; he intended to terrify, but to do no more. He entered Gondar early in the morning, and did homage to the king in the most respectful manner. He was invested with the charge of Ras by Joas himself; and from the palace, attended by two hundred soldiers, and all the people of note in the town, he went straight to take possession of the house which is particularly appropriated to his office, and sat down in judgment with the doors open.
Marauding parties of soldiers had entered at several parts of the town, and begun to use that licence they had been accustomed to on their march, pilfering and plundering houses, or persons that seemed without protection. Upon the first complaints, as he rode through the town, he caused twelve of the delinquents to be apprehended, and hanged upon trees in the streets, sitting upon his mule till he saw the execution performed. After he had arrived at his house, and was seated, these executions were followed by above fifty others in different quarters of Gondar. That same day he established four excellent officers in four quarters of the town. The first was Kefla Yasous, a man of the greatest worth, whom I shall frequently mention as a friend in the course of my history; the second, Billetana Gueta Welleta Michael, that is, first master of the household to the king. He had given that old officer that office, upon superseding Lubo the king’s uncle, without any consent asked or given. He was a man of a very morose turn, with whom I was never connected. The third was Billetana Gueta Tecla, his sister’s son, a man of very great worth and merit, who had the soft and gentle manners of Amhara joined to the determined courage of the Tigran.
Michael took upon himself the charge of the fourth district. He did not pretend by this to erect a military government in Gondar; on the contrary, these officers were only appointed to give force to the sentences and proceedings of the civil judges, and had not deliberation in any cause out of the camp. But two Umbares, or judges, of the twelve were obliged to attend each of the three districts; two were left in the king’s house, and four had their chamber of judicature in his.
The citizens, upon this fair aspect of government, where justice and power united to protect them, dismissed all their fears, became calm and reconciled to Michael the second day after his arrival, and only regretted that they had been in anarchy, and strangers to his government so long.
The third day after his arrival he held a full council in presence of the king. He sharply rebuked both parties in a speech of considerable length, in which he expressed much surprise, that both king and queen, after the experience of so many years, had not discovered that they were equally unfit to govern a kingdom, and that it was impossible to keep distant provinces in order, when they paid such inattention to the police of the metropolis. Great part of this speech applied to the king, who, with the Iteghè and Galla, were in a balcony as usual, in the same room, though at some distance, and above the table where the council sat, but within convenient hearing.
The troubled state, the destruction of Woggora, and the insecurity of the roads from Damot, had made a famine in Gondar. The army possessed both the rivers, and suffered no supply of water to be brought into the town, but allowed two jars for each family twice a-day, and broke them when they returned for more[98].
Ras Michael, at his rising from council, ordered a loaf of bread, a brulhé of water, and an ounce of gold, all articles portable enough to be exposed in the market-place, upon the head of a drum, without any apparent watching. But tho’ the Abyssinians are thieves of the first rate, tho’ meat and drink were very scarce in the town, and gold still scarcer, though a number of strangers came into it with the army, and the nights were almost constantly twelve hours long, nobody ventured to attempt the removing any of the three articles that, from the Monday to the Friday, had been exposed night and day in the market-place unguarded.
All the citizens, now surrounded with an army, found the security and peace they before had been strangers to, and every one deprecated the time when the government should pass out of such powerful hands. All violent oppressors, all those that valued themselves as leaders of parties, saw, with an indignation which they durst not suffer to appear, that they were now at last dwindled into absolute insignificance.
Having settled things upon this basis, Ras Michael next prepared to march out for the war of Begemder; and he summoned, under the severest penalties, all the great officers to attend him with all the forces they could raise. He insisted likewise that the king himself should march, and refused to let a single soldier stay behind him in Gondar; not that he wanted the assistance of those troops, or trusted to them, but he saw the destruction of Mariam Barea was resolved on, and he wished to throw the odium of it on the king. He affected to say of himself, that he was but the instrument of the king and his party, and had no end of his own to attain. He expatiated, upon all occasions, upon the civil and military virtues of Mariam Barea; said, that he himself was old, and that the king should walk coolly and cautiously, and consider the value that officer would be of to his posterity and to the nation when he should be no more.
Upon the first news of the king’s marching, Mariam Barea, who was encamped upon the frontiers near where he defeated Brulhé, fell back to Garraggara the middle of Begemder. The king followed with apparent intention of coming to a battle without loss of time; and Mariam Barea, by his behaviour, shewed in what different lights he viewed an army, at the head of which was his sovereign, and one commanded by a Galla.
No such moderation was shewn on the king’s part. His army burnt and destroyed the whole country through which they passed. It was plain that it was Joas’s intention to revenge the death of Brulhé upon the province itself, as well as upon Mariam Barea. As for Ras Michael, the behaviour of the king’s army had nothing in it new, or that could either surprise or displease him. Friend as he was to peace and good order at home, his invariable rule was to indulge his soldiers in every licence that the most profligate mind could wish to commit when marching against an enemy.
It was known the armies were to engage at Nefas Musa, because Mariam Barea had said he would fight Brulhé, to prevent him entering the province, but retreat before the king till he could no longer avoid going out of it. The king then marched upon the tract of Mariam Barea, burning and destroying on each side of him, as wide as possible, by detachments and scouring parties. Allo Fasil, an officer of the king’s household, a man of low birth, of very moderate parts, and one who used to divert the king as a kind of buffoon, otherwise a good soldier, had, as a favour, obtained a small party of horse, with which he ravaged the low country of Begemder.
The reader will remember, in the beginning of this history, that a singular revolution happened, in as singular a manner, the usurper of the house of Zaguè having voluntarily resigned the throne to the kings of the line of Solomon, who for several hundred years had been banished to Shoa. Tecla Haimanout, founder of the monastery of Debra Libanos, a saint, and the last Abyssinian that enjoyed the dignity of Abuna, had the address and influence to bring about this revolution, or resignation, and to restore the ancient line of kings. A treaty was made under guarantee of the Abuna, that large portions of Lasta should be given to this prince of the house of Zaguè, free from all tribute, tax, or service whatever, and that he should be regarded as an independent prince. The treaty being concluded, the prince of Zaguè was put in possession of his lands, and was called Y’Lasta Hatzè, which signifies, not the king of Lasta, but the king at or in Lasta[99]. He resigned the throne, and Icon Amlac of the line of Solomon, by the queen of Saba, continued the succession of princes of that house.
That treaty, greatly to the honour of the contracting parties, made towards the end of the 13th century, had remained inviolate till the middle of the 18th; no affront or injustice had been offered to the prince of Zaguè, and in the number of rebellions which had happened, by princes setting up their claims to the crown, none had ever proceeded, or in any shape been abetted, by the house of Zaguè, even though Lasta had been so frequently in rebellion.
As Joas was a young prince, now for the first time in the province of Begemder and passing not far from his domains, the prince of Zaguè thought it a proper civility and duty to salute the king in his passage, and congratulate him upon his accession to the throne of his father. He accordingly presented himself to Joas in the habit of peace, while, according to treaty, his kettle-drums, or nagareets, were silver, and the points of his guard’s spears of that metal also. The king received him with great cordiality and kindness; treated him with the utmost respect and magnificence; refused to allow him to prostrate himself on the ground, and forced him to sit in his presence. Michael went still farther; upon his entering his tent he uncovered himself to his waist, in the same manner as he would have done in presence of Joas. He received him standing, obliged him to sit in his own chair, and excused himself for using the same liberty of sitting, only on account of his own lameness.
The king halted one entire day to feast this royal guest. He was an old man of few words, but those very inoffensive, lively, and pleasant; in short, Ras Michael, not often accustomed to fix on favourites at first sight, was very much taken with this Lasta sovereign. Magnificent presents were made on all sides; the prince of Zaguè took his leave and returned; and the whole army was very much pleased and entertained at this specimen of the good faith and integrity of their kings.
He had now considerably advanced through his own country, Lasta, which was in the rear, when he was met by Allo Fasil returning from his plundering the low country, who, without provocation, from motives of pride or avarice, fell unawares upon the innocent, old man, whose attendants, secure, as they thought, under public faith, and accoutred for parade and not for defence, became an easy sacrifice, the prince being the first killed by Allo Fasil’s own hand.
Fasil continued his march to join the king, beating his silver kettle-drums as in triumph. The day after, Ras Michael, uninformed of what had passed, inquired who that was marching with a nagareet in his rear? as it is not allowed to any other person but governors of provinces to use that instrument; and they had already reached the camp. The truth was presently told; at which the Ras shewed the deepest compunction. The tents were already pitched when Fasil arrived, who, riding into Michael’s tent, as is usual with officers returning from an expedition, began to brag of his own deeds, and upbraided Michael, in a strain of mockery, that he was old, lame, and impotent.
This raillery, though very common on such occasions, was not then in season; and the last part of the charge against him was the most offensive, for there was no man more fond of the sex than Michael was. The Ras, therefore, ordered his attendants to pull Fasil off his horse, who, seeing that he was fallen into a scrape, fled to the king’s tent for refuge, with violent complaints against Michael. The king undertook to reconcile him to the Ras, and sent the young Armenian, commander of the black horse, to desire Michael to forgive Allo Fasil. This he absolutely refused to do, alledging, that the passing over Fasil’s insolence to himself would be of no use, as his life was forfeited for the death of the prince of Zaguè.
The king renewed his request by another messenger; for the Armenian excused himself from going, by saying boldly to the king, That, by the law of all nations, the murderer should die. To the second request the king added, that he required only his forgivenness of his insolence to him, not of the death of the prince of Zaguè, as he would direct what should be done when the nearest of kin claimed the satisfaction of retaliation. To this Ras Michael shortly replied, “I am here to do justice to every one, and will do it without any consideration or respect of persons.” And it was now, for the first time, Abyssinia ever saw a king solicit the life of a subject of his own from one of his servants, and be refused.
The king, upon this, ordered Allo Fasil to defend himself; and things were upon this footing, the affair likely to end in oblivion, though not by forgivenness. But, a very short time after, the prince of Zaguè’s eldest son came privately to Michael’s tent in the night; and, the next morning, when the judges were in his tent, Michael sent his door-keeper (Hagos) reckoned the bravest and most fortunate in combat of any private man in the army, and to whom he trusted the keeping of his tent-door, to order Allo Fasil to answer at the instance of the prince of Zaguè, then waiting him in court, Why he had murdered the prince his father? Fasil was astonished, and refused to come: being again cited in a regular manner by Hagos, he seemed desirous to avail himself of the king’s permission to defend himself, and call together his friends. Hagos, without giving him time, thrust him through with a lance; then cut off his head, and carried it to Michael’s tent, repeating what passed, and the reason of his killing him.
As a refusal in all such instances is rebellion, this had passed according to rule: a party of Tigrans was ordered to plunder his tent; and all the ill-got spoils which he had gained from the poor inhabitants of Begemder were abandoned to the soldiers. Fasil’s head was given to the prince of Zaguè, as a reparation for the treaty being violated; the silver nagareet and spears were returned; and, highly as this affair had been carried by Ras Michael, the king never after mentioned a word of it. But this was universally allowed to be the first cause of their disagreement.
Mariam Barea, seeing no other way to save his province from ruin but by bringing the affair to a short issue, resolved likewise to keep his promise. He retired to Nefas Musa, and encamped in the farthest limits of his province: behind this are the Woollo Galla, relations of Amitzo the king’s parents. Joas and Ras Michael followed him without delay, and, having called in all the out-posts, both sides prepared for an engagement.
About nine in the morning, Mariam Barea presented his army in order of battle. Michael had given orders to Kefla Yasous and Welleta Michael how to form his. He then mounted his mule, and with some of his officers rode out to view Mariam Barea’s disposition. The king, anxious about the fortune of the day, and terrified at some reports that had been made him, by timid, or unskilful people, of the warlike countenance of Mariam Barea’s army, sent to the Ras, whom he saw reconnoitring, to know his opinion of what was likely to happen. “Tell the king,” says the veteran, “that a young man like him, fighting with a subject so infinitely below him, with an army double his number, should give him fair play for his life and reputation. He should send to Mariam Barea to encrease the strength of his center by placing the troops of Lasta there, or we shall beat him in half an hour, without either honour to him or to ourselves.” The king, however, did not understand that sort of gallantry; he thought half an hour in suspence was long enough, and he ordered immediately a large body of musquetry to reinforce Fasil, who commanded the center, and thereby he weakened his own right wing.
Michael, who commanded the right of the royal army, had placed himself and his fire-arms in very rough ground, where cavalry could not approach him, and where he fired as from a citadel, and soon obliged the left wing of the rebels to retreat. But the king, Kefla Yasous, and Lubo on the right, were roughly handled by the horse of Lasta, and would have been totally defeated, the king and Lubo having already left the field, had not Kefla Yasous brought up a reinforcement of the men of Siré and Temben, and retrieved the day, at least brought things upon an equal footing.
Fasil, with the horse of Foggora and Damot, and a prodigious body of the Djawi and Pagan Galla, desirous to shew his consequence, and confirm himself in his ill-got government by his personal behaviour, attacked the Begemder horse in the center so irresistibly, that he not only broke through them in several places, but threw the whole body into a shameful flight. Mariam Barea himself was wounded in endeavouring to stop them, and hurried away, in spite of his inclination, crying out in great agony, “Is there not one in my army that will stay and see me die like the son of Kasmati Ayo?” It was all in vain; Powussen, and a number of his own officers, surrounding him, dragged him as it were by force out of the field. The country behind Nefas Musa is wild, and cut with deep gullies, and the woods almost impenetrable; they were therefore quickly out of the enemy’s pursuit, and safe, as they thought, under the protection of the Woollo Galla. The whole army of Begemder was dispersed, and Michael early forbade further pursuit.
The account of this battle, and what preceded it, from the murder of the prince of Zaguè, is not in the annals or history of Abyssinia, which I have hitherto followed; at least it has not appeared yet, probably out of delicacy to Ozoro Esther, fear of Ras Michael, and respect to the character of Mariam Barea, whose memory is still dear to his country. But the whole was often, at my desire, repeated to me by Kefla Yasous, and his officers who were there, whom he used to question about any circumstance he did not himself remember, or was absent from; for he was a scrupulous lover of truth; and nothing pleased him so much as the thought that I was writing his history to be read in my country, although he had not the smallest idea of England or its situation.
As for the conversation before the battle, it was often told me by Ayto Aylo and Ayto Engedan, sons of Kasmati Eshté, who were with the Ras when he delivered the message to the king, and were kept by him from engaging that day in respect to Mariam Barea, who was married to their aunt Ozoro Esther.
The king and Lubo sent Woosheka to their friends among the Woollo, who delivered up the unfortunate Mariam Barea, with twelve of his officers who had taken refuge with him. Mariam Barea was brought before the king in his tent, covered with blood that had flowed from his wound; his hands tied behind his back, and thus thrown violently with his face to the ground. A general murmur which followed shewed the sentiments of the spectators at so woful a sight; and the horror of it seemed to have seized the king so entirely as to deprive him of all other sentiments.
I have often said, the Mosaical law, or law of retaliation, is constantly observed over all Abyssinia as the criminal law of the country, so that, when any person is slain wrongfully by another, it does not belong to the king to punish that offence, but the judges deliver the offender to the nearest relation of the party murdered, who has the full power of putting him to death, selling him to slavery, or pardoning him without any satisfaction.
Lubo saw the king relenting, and that the greatest crime, that of rebellion, was already forgiven. He stood up, therefore, and, in violent rage, laid claim to Mariam Barea as the murderer of his brother: the king still saying nothing, he and his other Galla hurried Mariam Barea to his tent, where he was killed, according to report, with sundry circumstances of private cruelty, afterwards looked upon as great aggravations. Lubo, with his own hand, is said to have cut his throat in the manner they kill sheep. His body was afterwards disfigured with many wounds, and his head severed and carried to Michael, who forbade uncovering it in his tent. It was then sent to Brulhé’s family in their own country, as a proof of the satisfaction his friends had obtained; and this gave more universal umbrage than did even the cruelty of the execution.
Several officers of the king’s army, seeing the bloody intentions of the Galla, advised Powussen, and the eleven other officers that were taken prisoners, to make the best use of the present opportunity, and fly to the tent of Michael and implore his protection. This they most willingly did, with this connivance of Woosheka, who had been intrusted with the care of them, and Lubo having finished Mariam Barea, came to the king’s tent to seek the unhappy prisoners, whom he intended as victims to the memory of Brulhé likewise. Hearing, however, that they were fled to Michael’s tent, he sent Woosheka to demand them; but that officer had scarce opened his errand, in the gentlest manner possible, when Michael, in a fury, cried out, Cut him in pieces before the tent-door. Woosheka was indeed lucky enough to escape; but we shall find this was not forgot, for his punishment was more than doubled soon afterwards.
At seeing Mariam Barea’s head in the hands of a Galla, after forbidding him to expose it in his tent, Michael is said to have made the following observation: “Weak and cowardly people are always in proportion cruel and unmerciful. If Brulhé’s wife had done this, I could have forgiven her; but for Joas, a young man and a king, whose heart should be opened and elated with a first victory, to be partaker with the Galla, the enemies of his country, in the murder of a nobleman such as Mariam Barea, it is a prodigy, and can be followed by no good to himself or the state; and I am much deceived if the day is not at hand when he shall curse the moment that ever Galla crossed the Nile, and look for a man such as Mariam Barea, but he shall not find him.” And, indeed, Michael was very well entitled to make this prophecy, for he knew his own heart, and the designs he had now ready to put in execution.
It is no wonder that these free communications gave the king reason to distrust Michael. And it was observed that Waragna Fasil had insinuated himself far into his favour: his late behaviour at the battle of Nefas Musa had greatly increased his importance with the king; and the number of troops he had now with him made Joas think himself independent of the Ras. Fasil had brought with him near 30,000 men, about 20,000 of whom were horsemen, wild Pagan Galla, from Bizamo and other nations south of the Nile. The terror the savages occasioned in the countries through which they passed, and the great disorders they committed, gave Ras Michael a pretence to insist that all those wild Galla should be sent back to their own country. I say this was a pretence, because Michael’s soldiers were really more cruel and licentious, because more confident and better countenanced than these strangers were. But the war was over, the armies to be disbanded, these Pagans were consequently to return home; and they were all sent back accordingly, excepting 12,000 Djawi, men of Fasil’s own tribe, and some of the best horse of Maitsha, Agow, and Damot.
This was the first appearance of quarrel between Fasil and Ras Michael. But other accidents followed fast that blew up the flame betwixt them; of which the following was by much the most remarkable, and the most unexpected.
At Nefas Musa, near to the field of battle, was a house of Mariam Barea, which he used to remove to when he was busy in wars with the neighbouring Galla. It was surrounded with meadows perfectly well-watered, and full of luxuriant grass. Fasil, for the sake of his cavalry, had encamped in these meadows; or, if he had other views, they are not known; and though all the doors and entrances of the house were shut, yet within was the unfortunate Ozoro Esther, by this time informed of her husband’s death, and with her was Ayto Aylo, a nobleman of great credit, riches, and influence. He had been at the campaign of Sennaar, and was so terrified at the defeat, that, on his return, he had renounced the world, and turned monk. He was a man of no party, and refused all posts or employments; but was so eminent for wisdom, that all sides consulted him, and were in some measure governed by him.
This person, a relation of the Iteghé’s, had, at her desire, attended Ozoro Esther to Nefas Musa, but, adhering to his vow, went not to battle with her husband. Hearing, however, of the bad disposition of the king, the cruelty of the Galla, and the power and ambition of Fasil, whose soldiers were encamped round the house, he told her that there was only one resolution which she could take to avoid sudden ruin, and being made a sacrifice to one of the murderers of her husband.
This princess, under the fairest form, had the courage and decision of a Roman matron, worthy the wife of Mariam Barea, to whom she had born two sons. Instructed by Aylo, early in the morning, all covered from head to foot, accompanied by himself, and many attendants and friends, their heads bare, and without appearance of disguise, they presented themselves at the door of Michael’s tent, and were immediately admitted. Aylo announced the princess to the Ras, and she immediately threw herself at his feet on the ground.
As Michael was lame, tho’ in all other respects healthy and vigorous, and unprepared for so extraordinary an interview, it was some time before he could get upon his feet and uncover himself before his superior. This being at last accomplished, and Ozoro Esther refusing to rise, Aylo, in a few words, told the Ras her resolution was to give him instantly her hand, and throw herself under his protection, as that of the only man not guilty of Mariam Barea’s death, who could save her and her children from the bloody cruelty and insolence of the Galla that surrounded her. Michael, sanguine as he was in his expectations of the fruit he was to reap from his victory, did not expect so soon so fair a sample of what was to follow.
To decide well, instantly upon the first view of things, was a talent Michael possessed superior to any man in the kingdom. Tho’ Ozoro Esther had never been part of his schemes, he immediately saw the great advantage which would accrue to him by making her so, and he seized it; and he was certain also that the king, in his present disposition, would soon interfere. He lifted Ozoro Esther, and placed her upon his seat; sent for Kefla Yasous and his other officers, and ordered them, with the utmost expedition, to draw up his army in order of battle, as if for a review to ascertain his loss. At the same time he sent for a priest, and ordered separate tents to be pitched for Ozoro Esther and her household. All this was performed quickly; then meeting her with the priest, he was married to her at the door of his own tent in midst of the acclamations of his whole army. The occasion of these loud shouts was soon carried to the king, and was the first account he had of this marriage. He received the information with violent displeasure, which he could not stifle, or refrain from expressing it in the severest terms, all of which were carried to Ras Michael by officious persons, almost as soon as they were uttered, nothing softened.
The consequences of the marriage of Ozoro Esther were very soon seen in the inveterate and determined hatred against the Galla. Esther, who could not save Mariam Barea, sacrificed herself that she might avenge his death, and live to see the loss of her husband expiated by numberless hecatombs of his enemies and murderers. Mild, gentle, and compassionate as, from my own knowledge, she certainly was, her nature was totally changed when she cast back her eyes upon the sufferings of her husband; nor could she be ever satiated with vengeance for those sufferings, but constantly stimulated Ras Michael, of himself much inclined to bloodshed, to extirpate, by every possible means, that odious nation of Galla, by whom she had fallen from all her hopes of happiness.
Fasil, as being a Galla, the first man that broke thro’ the horse of Begemder, and wounded and put to flight her husband Mariam Barea, was in consequence among the black list of her enemies. Fasil, too, had murdered Kasmati Eshté, who was her favourite uncle, fast friend to Mariam Barea, and the man that had promoted her marriage with him.
The great credit of Fasil with the king had now given Ras Michael violent jealousy. These causes of hatred accumulated every day, so that Michael had already formed a resolution to destroy Fasil, even though the king should perish with him. In these sentiments, too, was Gusho of Amhara, a man of great personal merit, of whose father, Ras Woodage, we have already spoken, who had filled successively all the great offices in the last reign. He was immensely rich; had married a daughter of Ras Michael, and afterwards six or seven other women, being much addicted to the fair sex, and was lately married to Ozoro Welleta Israel, the Iteghé’s daughter. Nor was he in any shape an enemy to wine; but very engaging, and plausible in discourse and behaviour; in many respects a good officer, careful of his men, but said to be little solicitous about his word or promise to men of any other profession but that of a soldier.
An accident of the most trifling kind brought about an open breach between the king and the Ras, which never after was healed. The weather was very hot while the army was marching. One day, a little before their arrival at Gondar, in passing over the vast plain between the mountains and the lake Tzana, (afterwards the scene of much bloodshed) Ras Michael, being a little indisposed with the heat, and the sun at the same time affecting his eyes, which were weak, without other design than that of shading them, had thrown a white cloth or handkerchief over his head. This was told the king, then with Fasil in the center, who immediately sent to the Ras to inquire what was the meaning of that novelty, and upon what account he presumed to cover his head in his presence? The white handkerchief was immediately taken off, but the affront was thought so heinous as never after to admit of atonement.
It must be here observed, that, when the army is in the field, it is a distinction the king uses, to bind a broad fillet of fine muslin round his head, which is tied in a double knot, and hangs in two long ends behind. This, too, is worn by the governor of a province when he is first introduced into it; and, in absence of the king, is the mark of supreme power, either direct or delegated, in the person that wears it.
Unless on such occasions, no one covers his head in presence of the king, nor in sight of the house or palace where the king resides: But it was not thought, that, being at such a distance in the rear, he was in the king’s presence, nor that what was caused by infirmity was to be construed into presumption, or weighed by the nice scale of jealous prerogative.
The armies returned to the valleys below Gondar, and encamped separately there, Fasil upon the river Kahha, and Ras Michael on the Angrab. Gusho was on the right of Michael and left of Fasil, a little higher up the Kahha, near Koscam, the Iteghè’s palace; but he was on the opposite side of the river from Fasil, where he had a house of his own, and several large meadows adjoining. Gusho’s servants and soldiers now began cutting their master’s grass, and were soon joined by a number of Fasil’s people, who fell, without ceremony, to the same employment. An interruption was immediately attempted, a fray ensued, and several were killed or wounded on both sides, but at last Fasil’s people were beat back to their quarters.
Gusho complained to Ras Michael of this violation of his property; and he being now in Gondar, and holding the office of Ras, was, without doubt, the superior and regular judge of both, as they were both out of their provinces, and immediately in Michael’s. Upon citation, Fasil declared that he would submit to no such jurisdiction; and, the case being referred to the judges next day, it was found unanimously in council, that Ras Michael was in the right, and that Fasil was guilty of rebellion. A proclamation in consequence was made at the palace-gate, superseding Fasil in his government of Damot, and in every other office which he held under the king, and appointing Boro de Gago in his place, a man of great interest in Damot and Gojam, and with the Galla on both sides of the Nile, and married to a sister of Kasmati Eshté’s, by another mother, otherwise a man of small capacity.
Fasil, after a long and private audience of the king in the night, decamped early in the morning with his army, and sat down at Azazo, the high road between Damot and Gondar, and there he intercepted all the provisions coming from the southward to the capital.
It happened that the house in Gondar, where Ras Michael lived, was but a small distance from the palace, a window of which opened so directly into it, that Michael, when sitting in judgment, could be distinctly seen from thence. One day, when most of his servants had left him, a shot was fired into the room from this window of the palace, which, though it missed Michael, wounded a dwarf, who was standing before him fanning the flies from off his face, so grievously, that the page fell and expired at the foot of his master. This was considered as the beginning of the hostilities. Nobody knew from whose hand the shot came; but the window from which it was aimed sufficiently shewed, that if it was not by direction, it must at least have been fired with the knowledge of the king.
Joas lost no time, but removed and encamped at Tedda, and sent Woosheka to Michael with orders to return to Tigré, and not to see his face; and, at the same time, declared Lubo governor of Begemder and Amhara. The Ras scarcely could be brought to see Woosheka; but did not deign to give any further answer than this, “That the king should know, that the proper persons to correspond with him as Ras, upon the affairs of the kingdom, were the judges of the town, or of the palace; not a slave like Woosheka, whose life, as well as that of all the Gallas in the king’s presence, was forfeited by the laws of the land. He cautioned him from appearing again in his presence, for if he did, that he should surely die.”
The next day a message came from the king, by four judges, forbidding the Ras again to drink of either the Angrab or the Kahha, but to strike his tents and return to Tigré upon pain of incurring his highest displeasure.—To this Michael answered, “That, true it was, his province was Tigré, but that he was now governor of the whole realm; that he was an extraordinary officer, called to prevent the ruin of the country, because, confessedly, the king could not do it; that the reason of his coming existed to that day; and he was very willing to submit it to the judges for their solemn opinion, whether the kingdom, at present in the hands of the Galla, was not in more danger from the power of those Galla than it was from the constitutional influence of Mariam Barea. He added, that he expected the king should be ready to march against Fasil, for which purpose he was to decamp on the morrow.” The king returned an absolute refusal to march: The Ras thereupon made proclamation for all the Galla, of every denomination to leave the capital, the next day, upon pain of death, declaring them outlawed, and liable to be slain by the first that met them, if, after twenty-four hours, they were found in Gondar or its neighbourhood, or, after ten days, in any part of the kingdom. After this, accompanied by Gusho, he decamped to dislodge Fasil from the strong post which he held at Azazo.
By the king’s refusal to march with Ras Michael in person, it was supposed that his household troops would not join, but remain with him to garrison his palace. Joas, however, was too far decided in favour of Fasil to remain neuter. Michael had encamped the 21st of April in the evening, on the side of the hill above Azazo, in very rough and rocky ground, as unfavourable for Fasil’s horse as the slope it had was favourable for Michael’s musquetry.
The battle was fought on the 22d in the morning, and there was much blood shed for the time that it lasted. A nephew of Michael, and his old Fit-Auraris, Netcho, were both slain, and Fasil was totally defeated. The Galla, who had come from the other side of the Nile, were very much terrified at Michael’s fire-arms, which contained what they called the zibib, or grape, meaning thereby the ball. Fasil retired quickly to Damot, to increase and collect another army again, and to try his fortune after the rains.
It happened, unfortunately, that among the prisoners taken at Azazo were some of the king’s black horse. These being his slaves, and subject only to his commands, sufficiently shewed by whose authority they came there. They were, therefore, all called before Michael; two of them were first interrogated, whether the king had sent them or not? and, upon their denying or refusing to give an answer, their throats were cut before their companions. The next questioned was a page of the king, who seeing, from the fate of his friends, what was to follow his denial, frankly told the Ras, that it was by the king’s special orders they, and a considerable body of the household troops, had joined Fasil the night before; and further, that it was the Armenian, who, by the king’s order, had fired at him, and killed the dwarf who was fanning the flies from him.
Upon this information all the prisoners were dismissed. The army returned the same night to Gondar, and, though they had been fasting all day, a council was held, which sat till very late, at the rising of which a messenger was dispatched to Wechné for Hatzé Hannes, who was brought to the foot of the mountain the next day. In the same night Shalaka Becro, Nebrit Tecla and his two sons, Lika Netcho and his two sons, and a monk of Tigré, called Welleta Christos, were sent to the palace to murder the king, which they easily accomplished, having found him alone. They buried him in the church of St Raphael, as we shall find from the regicide’s own confession, when he was apprehended, when we shall relate the particulars.
At the same time Michael exhibited a strange contrast in his behaviour to the Armenian, who had fled to the house of the Abuna for refuge. He sent and took him thence, and banished him from Abyssinia, but so considerately, that he dispatched a servant with him to Masuah to furnish him with necessaries, to see him embark, and save him from the cruelty and extortions of the Naybe.
HANNES II.
1769.Hannes, Brother to Bacuffa, chosen King—Is brought from Wechné—Crowned at Gondar—Refuses to march against Fasil—Is poisoned by Order of Ras Michael.
Hannes, a man past seventy years of age, made his entry into Gondar the 3d of May 1769. He was brother to Bacuffa, and having in his time escaped from the mountain, and being afterwards taken, his hand was cut off by order of the king his brother, and he was sent back to the place of his confinement.
It is a law of Abyssinia, as we have already observed, derived from that of Moses, that no man can be capable either of the throne or priesthood, unless he be perfect in all his limbs; the want of a hand, therefore, certainly disqualified Hannes, and it was with that intent it had been cut off. When this was objected to him in council, Michael laughed violently, and turned it into ridicule; “What is it that a king has to do with his hands? Are you afraid he shall not be able to saddle his own mule, or load his own baggage? Never fear that; when he is under any such difficulty, he has only to call upon me[100], and I will help him.”
Hannes, besides his age, was very feeble in body; and having had no conversation but with monks and priests, this had debilitated his mind as much as age had done his body. He could not be persuaded to take any share in government. The whole day was spent in psalms and prayers; but Ras Michael had brought from the mountain with him two sons, Tecla Haimanout the eldest, a prince of fifteen years of age, and the younger, called George, about thirteen.
Guebra Denghel, a nobleman of the first family in Tigré had married a daughter of Michael by one of his wives in that province. By her he had one daughter, Welleta Selassé, whom Michael in the beginning, while Joas and he were yet friends, had destined to be queen, and to be married to him. Hannes was of the age only to need a Shunnamite; and Welleta Selassé, young and beautiful, and who merited to be something more, was destined as this sacrifice to the ambition of her grandfather. A kind of marriage, I believe, was therefore made, but never consummated. She lived with Hannes some months in the palace, but never took any state upon her. She was a wife and a queen merely in name and idea. Love had in that frozen composition as little share as ambition, and those two great temptations, a crown and a beautiful mistress, could not animate Hatzé Hannes to take the field to defend them. Every possible method was taken by Michael to overcome his reluctance, and do away his fears. All was vain; he wept, hid himself, turned monk, demanded to be sent again to Wechné, but absolutely refused marching with the army.
Michael, who had already seen the danger of leaving a king behind him while he was in the field, and finding Hannes inexorable, had recourse to poison, which was given him in his breakfast; and the Ras, by this means, in less than six months became the deliberate murderer of two kings.
TECLA HAIMANOUT II.
1769.Succeeds his Father Hannes—His Character and prudent Behaviour—Cultivates Michael’s Friendship—Marches willingly against Fasil—Defeats him at Fagitta—Description of that Battle.
Tecla Haimanout succeeded his father. He was a prince of a most graceful figure, tall for his age, rather thin, and of the whitest shade of Abyssinian colour, such are all those princes that are born in the mountain. He was not so dark in complexion as a Neapolitan or Portugueze, had a remarkably fine forehead, large black eyes, but which had something very stern in them, a straight nose, rather of the largest, thin lips, and small mouth, very white teeth and long hair. His features, even in Europe, would have been thought fine. He was particularly careful of his hair, which he dressed in a hundred different ways. Though he had been absent but a very few months from his native mountain, his manners and carriage were those of a prince, that from his infancy had sat upon an hereditary throne. He had an excellent understanding, and prudence beyond his years. He was said to be naturally of a very warm temper, but this he had so perfectly subdued as scarcely ever to have given an instance of it in public. He entered into Ras Michael’s views entirely, and was as forward to march out against Fasil, as his father had been averse to it.
From the time of Hannes’s accession to the throne, Tecla Haimanout called Michael by the name of Father, and during the few slight sicknesses the Ras had, he laid by all his state, and attended him with an anxiety well becoming a son. At this time I entered Abyssinia, and arrived in Masuah, where there was a rumour only of Hatzé Hannes’s illness.
The army marched out of Gondar on the 10th of November 1769, taking the route of Azazo and Dingleber. Fasil was at Buré, and had assembled a large army from Damot, Agow, and Maitsha. But Welleta Yasous, his principal officer, had brought together a still larger one, from the wild nations of Galla beyond the Nile, and this not without some difficulty. The zibib, or bullet, which had destroyed so many of them at Azazo, had made an impression on their minds, and been reported to their countrymen as a circumstance very unpleasing. These wild Pagans, therefore, had, for the first time, found a reluctance to invade their ancient enemies the Abyssinians.
Fasil, to overcome this fear of the zibib, had loaded some guns with powder, and fired them very near at some of his friends, which of course had hurt nobody. Again he had put ball in his gun, and fired at cattle afar off; and these being for the most part slightly wounded, he inferred from thence that the zibib was fatal only at a distance, but that if they galloped resolutely to the mouth of the gun, the grape could do no more than the first gun he fired with powder had done to those he had aimed at.
As soon as Fasil heard that Michael was on his march, he left Buré and advanced to meet him, his wish being to fight him if possible, before he should enter into those rich provinces of the Agows, from whence he drew the maintenance of his army, and expected tribute. Michael’s conduct warranted this precaution. For no sooner had he entered Fasil’s government, than he laid waste all Maitsha, destroying every thing with fire and sword. The old general indeed being perfectly acquainted with the country, and with the enemy he was to engage, had already fixed upon his field of battle, and measured the stations that would conduct him thither.
Instead of taking up the time with spreading the desolation he had begun, after the first two days, by forced marches he came to Fagitta, considerably earlier than Fasil expected. This field that Michael had chosen, was rocky, uneven, and full of ravines in one part, and of plain smooth turf on the other, which divisions were separated by a brook full of large stones.
The Nile was on Ras Michael’s left, and in this rugged ground he stationed his lances and musquetry; for he never made great account of his horse. Two large churches, St Michael and St George, planted thick with cedars, and about half a mile distant from each other, were on his right and left flanks, or rather advanced farther before his front. A deep valley communicated with the most level of these plains, descending gently all the way from the celebrated sources of the Nile, which were not more than half a day’s journey distant. Michael drew up his army behind the two churches, which were advanced on his right and left flanks, and among the cedars of these he planted 500 musqueteers before each church, whom the trees perfectly concealed; he formed his horse in front, knowing them to be an object the Galla did not fear, and likely to lead them on to charge rashly. These he gave the command of to a very active and capable officer, Powussen of Begemder, one of those eleven servants of Mariam Barea, whose lives Michael saved, by protecting them in his tent after the battle of Nefas Musa. He had directed this officer, with a few horse, to scour the small plain, as soon as he saw the Galla advancing into it from the valley.
As soon as the sun became hot, Fasil’s wild Galla poured into the plain, and they had now occupied the greatest part of it, which was not large enough to contain his whole army, when their skirmishing began by their driving Powussen before them, who fled apparently in great confusion, crossed the brook, and joined the horse, and formed nearly between the churches. The Galla, desirous to pursue, were impeded by the great stones, so that they were in a crowd at the passage of the brook.
Ayto Welleta Gabriel, factor to Ozoro Esther, was intoxicated with liquor, but he was a brave man, very active and strong, and of a good understanding, though, according to a custom among them, he, at times, to divert the Ras, played the part of a buffoon. In this character, with his musquet only in his hand, he, though on foot, skirmished in the middle of a party of Powussen’s horse. When they turned to fly, Welleta Gabriel found it convenient to do so likewise, and he crossed the brook without looking behind him. Upon turning round, he saw the Galla halt, as if in council, in the bed of the rivulet, and taking up his gun as a bravado, he levelled at the crowd, and had the fortune to hit the principal man among them, who fell dead among the feet of the horses.
A small pause ensued; the cry of the Zibib! the Zibib! immediately began, and a downright confusion and flight followed. The Galla, already upon the plain, turned upon those coming out of the valley, and these again upon their companions behind them. The cry of Zibib Ali[101]! Zibib Ali! was repeated through the whole, spreading terror and dismay wherever it was heard. Nobody knew what was the misfortune that had befallen them. Welleta Yasous, who commanded the van, was carried away by the multitude flying: Fasil, who was at the head of the Damot and Agows, had not entered the valley, nor could any one tell him what was the accident in the plain.
Even Michael himself, (as I have heard him say) when, sitting upon his mule on a small eminence, he saw this extraordinary confusion and retreat, was not able to assign any cause for it. Though no man on these occasions had more presence of mind, he remained for a time motionless, without giving any orders. The troops, however, that lay hid in the groves of cedars before the churches, who had been silent and attentive, and Powussen, who commanded the horse which had been skirmishing, saw distinctly the operation of Welleta Gabriel, and the confusion that had followed it; without loss of time they attacked the Galla in the valley, and were soon joined by Gusho and the rest of the army.
Fasil, in despair at a defeat of which he knew not the cause, came down among the Galla, fighting very bravely, often facing about upon those that pressed them, and endeavouring at least to retreat in some sort of order; but the musqueteers from the church, commanded by Hezekias, instead of entering the valley, had advanced and ascended the hills, so that from the sides of them, in the utmost security, they poured down shot upon the fliers beneath them.
Fasil here lost a great part of his army; but seeing a place in one of the hills accessible, he left the valley, and ascended the side of the mountain, leading a large body of his own troops; and, having gained the smooth ground behind the musqueteers, he came up with them, whilst intent only upon annoying the Galla, and cut 300 to pieces. Content with this advantage, and finding his army entirely dispersed, he passed the sources of the Nile at Geesh, descended into the plain of Assoa, and encamped near Gooderoo, a small lake there, intending to pass the night, and collect his scattered forces.
Michael’s army had given over pursuit, but Powussen, with some chosen horse of Lasta and Begemder, followed Fasil upon his track, and came up with him a little before the dusk of the evening, on the side of the lake. Here a great slaughter of wounded and weary men ensued: Fasil fled, and no resistance was attempted, and the soldiers, satiated with blood, at last returned, and pursued the enemy no further.
It was the next day in the evening before Powussen joined the camp, having put to the sword, without mercy, all the stragglers that fell in the way upon his return. The appearance of this man and his behaviour made Michael’s joy complete, who already had begun to entertain fears that some untoward accident had befallen him.
This was the battle of Fagitta, fought on the 9th of December 1769, on the very ground in which Fasil, just five years before, had murdered Kasmati Eshté. Those philosophers, who disclaim the direction of a divine Providence, will calculate how many chances there were, that, in a kingdom as big as Great Britain, the commission of a crime and its punishment should both happen in one place, on one day, in the short space of five years, and in the life of one man.
The extraordinary severity exercised upon the army of the Galla, after the battle, was still as apparent as it had been in the flight. Woosheka, of whom we have had already occasion to speak, fell in among the horse of Powussen and Gusho, and being known, his life was spared. He was cousin-german to Lubo, but a better man and soldier than his relation, and, in all the intrigues of the Galla at Gondar, was considered as an undesigning man, of harmless and inoffensive manners. He had been companion of Gusho, and many of the principal commanders in the army, and, after the defeat at Nefas Musa, had the guard of Powussen and the eleven officers, whom he suffered to escape into Michael’s tent, as I have already said, while Lubo was murdering Mariam Barea. He had been, for a time, well known and well esteemed by Ras Michael, nor was he ever supposed personally to have offended him, or given umbrage to any one. As he was a man of some fortune and substance, it was thought the forfeiture of all that he had might more than atone for any fault that he had ever committed.
It was therefore agreed on the morning after Powussen’s return from the pursuit, that Gusho and he, when they surrendered this prisoner, should ask his life and pardon from the Ras, and this they did, prostrating themselves in the humblest manner with their foreheads on the earth. Ras Michael, at once forgetting his own interest, and the quality and consequence of the officers before him, fell into a violent and outrageous passion against the supplicants, and, after a very short reproof, ordered each of them to their tents in a kind of disgrace.
He then sternly interrogated Woosheka, whether he did not remember that, at Tedda, he had ordered him out of the country in ten days? then, in his own language of Tigré, he asked, if there was any one among the soldiers that could make a leather bottle? and being answered in the affirmative, he ordered one to be made of Woosheka’s skin, but first to carry him to the king. The soldiers understood the command, though the miserable victim did not, and he was brought to the king, who would not suffer him to speak, but waved with his hand to remove him; and they accordingly carried him to the river side, where they flayed him alive, and brought his skin stuffed with straw to Ras Michael.
It was not doubted that Ozoro Esther, then in the camp, had sealed the fate of this wretched victim. She appeared that night in the king’s tent dressed in the habit of a bride, which she had never before done since the death of Mariam Barea. Two days after, having obtained her end, she returned triumphant to Gondar, where Providence visited her with distress in her own family, for the hardness of her heart to the sufferings of others.
During this time I was at Masuah, where, by reason of the great distance and interruption in the roads, these transactions were not yet known. Hatzé Hannes was still supposed alive, and my errand from Metical Aga that of being his Physician. I shall now begin an account of what passed at Masuah, and thence continue my journey to Gondar till my meeting with the king there.
END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The city of Wolves, or Hyænas.
[2] She had several names, as I have before said, Judith in Tigré, and in Amhara Esther.
[3] Conquetes de Portugais par Lafitan, vol. I. liv. ii. p. 90. Id. ibid. p. 144.
[4] It has been imagined that this number should be increased to seventy, but I have, followed the text; there would be little difference in the rashness of the action.
[5] A tribe of the Shepherds; all the rest, but the two first, unknown in Abyssinia at this day.
[6] Mountain of the Testimony.
[7] The Moors in general are much squarer, stouter-made men, than the Abyssinians.
[8] Probably Magwas, or Berhan Magwass, the Glory of Grace; a name often used by queens; for Mogessa has no signification, that I know, in any of the languages of Ethiopia.
[9] That is, while the family of Zaguè reigned, in Tigré, and that of Solomon in Shoa, before the restoration.
[10] Vid. Ludolf, lib. 3. No. 29. I have this letter at length prefixed to the large volume of Canons and Councils, a copy of which was sent by Zara Jacob to the monks in Jerusalem.
[11] St. Stefano in Rotondis.
[12] Francisco de Branca Leon.
[13] One of the steep mountains used for prisons.
[14] Another church on a hill, one of the quarters of Gondar. It signifies the Hill of Glory, or Brightness.
[15] Bilur, in the language of Samhar, signifies fossile salt; if it is coloured with any mineral, so as to be either red or green, it is, in this latter case, applied often to emeralds, and green-rock crystal.
[16] A race of very barbarous people, all shepherds, having great substance, and much resembling the nations of Galla. They are Pagans.
[17] The pomegranate of gold.
[18] The station of David.
[19] Betwudet is an officer that has nearly the same power as Ras; there were two of these, and both being slain at one battle, as we shall see in the sequel, the office grew into disuse as unfortunate.
[20] The literal translation of this is, doubly sharp, or sharp to a fault; a character he had gained in Portugal.
[21] See Marco Paulo’s Travels into Tartary.
[22] On the west side of the peninsula on the Atlantic.
[23] Vide Marmol, vol. i. cap. 37.
[24] Is a subject paying Capitation.
[25] Vid. David’s letter to Emanuel, king of Portugal 1524.
[26] Vide Map of Shoa.
[27] Or Governor.
[28] Vide Poncet’s travels, in his return through Tigré, p. 116. London edit. 12mo. 1709.
[29] In Barbary called Mishta, in Abyssinia, Kagga.
[30] This is a name of humility. He is a great officer, and has no care or charge of asses.
[31] Alvarez Histoire d’Ethiopic, p. 157.
[32] Canso el Gauri, and Tomum Bey.
[33] Selim I. emperor of the Ottomans.
[34] It was he who, as we have seen, slew the Moor Maffudi in single combat in the beginning of this reign.
[35] Constant in the faith.
[36] Tellez, lib. 2. cap. 27.
[37] Dated at Rome 16th Feb. 1555. See Tellez, lib. 2. cap. 22.
[38] See Bermudes’s account of these times, printed at Lisbon by Francis Correa, A. D. 1565.
[39] The Mountain of Gold.
[40] Purch. vol. 2.
[41] Ludolf, lib. 2. cap. 6.
[42] To Geshen or Wechné.
[43] See Le Grande’s History of Abyssinia.
[44] See the article Wanzey in the Appendix.
[45] Jerome Lobo Hist. of Abyssinia ap. Le Grande.
[46] The name of infant-king seems to have been given as a nick-name in Abyssinia, and is preserved to this day.
[47] We have mentioned this treaty in the reign of Icon Amlac.
[48] Then the metropolis upon the Lake Tzana.
[49] Register of the cattle; so the governor of Dembea is called.
[50] See the History of the rise of this monarchy in my return through Sennaar.
[51] A low territory at the foot of Lamalmon.
[52] It was probably part of the fruits of the new religion, and the work of his new religious advisers.
[53] The words, Boren, and Bertuma Galla, have no meaning in the Ethiopic.
[54] See the Map.
[55] See the provincial letters of the Jesuits in Tellez, lib. iv. cap. 5.
[56] Which signifies the Passage.
[57] This will be more enlarged upon hereafter.
[58] Tellez, lib. iv. cap. 38.
[59] It is apparently a speech in a passion, for this Sela Christos was one of the most learned of the Abyssinians; yet the words themselves, if literally translated, are scarcely intelligible.
[60] I have seen them often at Madrid.
[61] Called by the Agows, Krihaha.
[62] A name of the black Pagans bordering on Sennaar to the south-west.
[63] Astronom. de M. de La Lande, liv. 19. p. 366.
[64] See the article kantuffa in the Appendix.
[65] The white mountain.
[66] The mountain of salt.
[67] By Chancellor of the Nation is meant the officer immediately next the consul, who keeps the records, and has a department absolutely independent of the Consul.
[68] Vid. Poncet.
[69] It is plain Poncet had no instruments for observation with him, nor was he probably acquainted with the use of them.
[70] To be described hereafter.
[71] See an elevation of this in my account of Axum.
[72] And there he wrote his Teliamede which supposes men were first created fishes, for which he was excommunicated. It was an opinion perfectly worthy of alarming the Sorbonne.
[73] Plin. vol. 1. lib. 6. cap. 30. p. 376.
[74] Father Bernat, a Frenchman.
[75] We have seen these were recommended by M. Maillet, the consul.
[76] This is not the king’s seal. It is the invention of some Mahometan employed to write the letters.
[77] See the letter itself, it is the last in Le Grande’s book, and in Latin, if I remember rightly.
[78] Vid. the letter as quoted above.
[79] Abdelcader, son of Ounsa, retired here.
[80] It signifies Justus.
[81] Vid general map.
[82] Juvenal, sat. 13. l. 163.
[83] Nisi malitia suppleat ætatem.
[84] Herod. lib. 3, par. 17, & seq.
[85] Supposed to be the Garamantica Vallis of Ptolemy.
[86] Dodswell’s dissertation of Hanno’s Periplus—Montesquieu, tom. I. lib. 21. cap. 11.
[87] This sensation of the savage in the heart of Africa seems to be unknown to the enemies of the slave-trade; they talk much of heat, without knowing the material suffering of the negro is from cold.
[88] There seems here some contradiction which needs explanation. It is said that the palace was burnt before Oustas went to his tent. How then could the soldiers assemble in it afterwards? The palace consists of a number of separate houses at no great distance, but detached from one another with one room in each. That where the coronation is performed is called Anbasa Bet; another, where the king sits in festivals, is called Zeffan Bet; another is called Werk Sacala, the gold-house; another Gimja Bet, or the brocade-house, where the wardrobe and the gold stuffs used for presents, or received as such, are laid. Now, we suppose Oustas in any one of these apartments, say Zeffan Bet, which he left to go to his tent, and it was then burnt; still there remained the coronation-house where the regalia was kept, which the soldiers locked up that it might not be used to crown Fasil, Oustas’s son, whom they thought the seven great men they had murdered conspired to place upon the throne after his father.
[89] Mistress to Yasous, and mother to David.
[90] But there can be no doubt both opinions are absolute heresy, in the most liberal sense of that word, as expressly denying our Saviour’s consubstantiality.
[91] This drum is of beaten silver; the Abyssinians say, that this metal alone is capable of conveying the sweet sound contained in a proclamation of peace. It was carried off by the rebels after the retreat of Serbraxos.
[92] Dek.
[93] A relict of the most precious kind, believed to have come from Jerusalem, and been painted by St Luke.
[94] About one hundred and eighty-six pounds, an ounce of gold at a medium being 10 crowns.
[95] This is a fish common in the Mediterranean, of the kind of anchovies, the common food of the galley-slaves, and lower sort of people.
[96] Noba, in the language of Sennaar, signifies Soldier; it is probably from this the ancient name of Nubia first came.
[97] A well near Karoota, immediately on the frontiers of Begemder.
[98] This is commonly done in times of trouble, to keep the townsmen in awe, as if fire was intended, which would not be in their power to quench.
[99] Nearly the same distinction as the silly one made in Britain between the French king and king of France.
[100] What made the ridicule here was, Michael was older than the king, and could not stand alone.
[101] They have the grape along with them.
Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent double quotes and capitalization are as in the original.
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.