I had violent threatenings of the ague, and had gone to bed full of reflections on extraordinary events that, in a few hours, had as it were crowded upon one another. I had appointed Fasil’s servants to come to my tent in the evening. I understood a council had been called, to which Welleta Kyrillos, the king’s historiographer, had been sent for, and instructed how to give an account of this campaign of Maitsha, the passage of the Nile, and the meeting with Fasil at Limjour. Kefla Yasous’s march to Delakus, and passage there, were ordered to be written in gold letters, and so was Fasil’s appointment to Damot and Maitsha. From this authentic copy, and what I myself heard or observed, I formed these notes of the campaign.
On the 30th of May nothing material happened, and, in a few days, we arrived at Gondar. The day before we entered, being encamped on the river Kemona, came two messengers from Gusho and Powussen, with various excuses why they had not joined. They were very ill received by the Ras, and refused an audience of the king. Their present, which is always new clothes to some value, was a small piece of dark-blue Surat cloth, value about half-a-crown, intended as an affront; they were not suffered to sleep in the camp, but forwarded to Fasil where they were going.
The 3d of June the army encamped on the river Kahha, under Gondar. From the time we left Dingleber, some one or other of the Ras’s confidential friends had arrived every day. Several of the great officers of state reached us at the Kemona, many others met us at Abba Samuel. I did not perceive the news they brought increased the spirits either of the King or the Ras; the soldiers, however, were all contented, because they were at home; but the officers, who saw farther, wore very different countenances, especially those that were of Amhara.
I, in particular, had very little reason to be pleased; for, after having undergone a constant series of fatigues, dangers, and expences, I was returned to Gondar disappointed of my views in arriving at the source of the Nile, without any other acquisition than a violent ague. The place where that river rises remained still as great a secret as it had been ever since the catastrophe of Phaeton:—
Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem,
Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet.——
Ovid. Metam. lib. ii.
CHAP. VII.
King and Army retreat to Tigré—Interesting Events following that Retreat—The Body of Joas is found—Favourable Turn of the King’s Affairs—Socinios, a new King, proclaimed at Gondar.
The king had heard that Gusho and Powussen, with Gojam under Ayto Aylo, and all the troops of Belessen and Lasta, were ready to fall upon him in Gondar as soon as the rains should have swelled the Tacazzé, so that the army could not retire into Tigré; and it was now thought to be the instant this might happen, as the king’s proclamation in favour of Fasil, especially the giving him Gojam, it was not doubted, would hasten the motion of the rebels. Accordingly that very morning, after the king arrived, the proclamation was made at Gondar, giving Fasil Gojam, Damot, the Agow, and Maitsha; after which his two servants were again magnificently cloathed, and sent back with honour.
As I had never despaired, some way or other, of arriving at the fountains of the Nile, from which we were not fifty miles distant when we turned back at Karcagna, so I never neglected to improve every means that held out to me the least probability of accomplishing this end. I had been very attentive and serviceable to Fasil’s servants while in the camp. I spoke greatly of their master, and, when they went away, gave each of them a small present for himself, and a trifle also for Fasil. They had, on the other hand, been very importunate with me as a physician to prescribe something for a cancer on the lip, as I understood it to be, with which Welleta Yasous, Fasil’s principal general, was afflicted.
I had been advised, by some of my medical friends, to carry along with me a preparation of hemlock, or cicuta, recommended by Dr Stork, a physician at Vienna. A considerable quantity had been sent me from France by commission, with directions how to use it. To keep on the safe side, I prescribed small doses to Welleta Yasous, being much more anxious to preserve myself from reproach than warmly solicitous about the cure of my unknown patient. I gave him positive advice to avoid eating raw meat; to keep to a milk diet, and drink plentifully of whey when he used this medicine. They were overjoyed at having succeeded so well in their commission, and declared before the king, That Fasil their master would be more pleased with receiving a medicine that would restore Welleta Yasous to health, than with the magnificent appointments the king’s goodness had bestowed upon him. “If it is so, said I, in this day of grace, I will ask two favours.”—“And that’s a rarity, says the king; come, out with them; I don’t believe anybody is desirous you should be refused; I certainly am not; only I bar one of them, you are not to relapse into your usual despondency, and talk of going home.”—“Well, Sir, said I, I obey, and that is not one of them. They are these—You shall give me, and oblige Fasil to ratify it, the village Geesh, and the source where the Nile rises, that I may be from thence furnished with honey for myself and servants; it shall stand me instead of Tangouri, near Emfras, and, in value, it is not worth so much. The second is, That, when I shall see that it is in his power to carry me to Geesh, and shew me those sources, Fasil shall do it upon my request, without fee or reward, and without excuse or evasion.”