Achmet, therefore, declared it was his resolution that I should be received with marks of consideration, till upon inspecting my letters, and conversing with me, they might see what sort of man I was, and upon what errand I was come; but even if I was a trader, and no priest or Frank, such as came to disturb the peace of the country, he would not then consent to any personal injury being done me; if I was indeed a priest, or one of those Franks, Gehennim, they might send me to hell if they chose; but he, for his part, would not, even then have any thing to do with it.
Before our vessel appeared, they came to these conclusions; and though I have supposed that hoisting the colours and saluting me with guns had brought me into this danger, on the other hand it may be said, perhaps with greater reason, they were the means Providence kindly used to save my life in that slaughter-house of strangers.
Achmet’s father had been Naybe before, and, of course, the sovereignty, upon the present incumbent’s death, was to devolve on him. And what made this less invidious, the sons of the present Naybe had all been swept away by the small-pox; so that Achmet was really, at any rate, to be considered as his son and successor. Add to this, the Naybe had received a stroke of the palsy, which deprived him of the use of one of his sides, and greatly impeded his activity, unless in his schemes of doing ill; but I could not perceive, when intending mischief, that he laboured under any infirmity. All this gave Achmet sovereign influence, and it was therefore agreed the rest should be only spectators, and that my fate should be left to him.
Achmet was about twenty-five years of age, or perhaps younger; his stature near five-feet four; he was feebly made, a little bent forward or stooping, thin, long-faced, long-necked; small, but tolerably well-limbed, agile and active enough in his motions, though of a figure by no means athletic; he had a broad forehead, thick black eye-brows, black eyes, an aquiline nose, thin lips, and fine teeth; and, what is very rare in that country, and much desired, a thick curled beard. This man was known to be very brave in his person, but exceedingly prone to anger. A near relation to the Baharnagash having said something impertinent to him while he was altering the pin of his tent, which his servant had not placed to his mind, in a passion he struck the Abyssinian with a wooden mallet, and killed him on the spot and although this was in the Abyssinian territory, by getting nimbly on horseback, he arrived at Arkeeko without being intercepted, though closely pursued almost to the town.
It was the 19th of September 1769 when we arrived at Masuah, very much tired of the sea, and desirous to land. But, as it was evening, I thought it adviseable to sleep on board all night, that we might have a whole day (as the first is always a busy one) before us, and receive in the night any intelligence from friends, who might not choose to venture to come openly to see us in the day, at least before the determination of the Naybe had been heard concerning us.
Mahomet Gibberti, a man whom we had perfectly secured, and who was fully instructed in our suspicions as to the Naybe, and the manner we had resolved to behave to him, went ashore that evening; and, being himself an Abyssinian, having connections in Masuah, dispatched that same night to Adowa, capital of Tigrè, those letters which I knew were to be of the greatest importance; giving our friend Janni (a Greek, confidential servant of Michael, governor of Tigrè) advice that we were arrived, had letters of Metical Aga to the Naybe and Ras Michael; as also Greek letters to him from the Greek patriarch of Cairo, a duplicate of which I sent by the bearer. We wrote likewise to him in Greek, that we were afraid of the Naybe, and begged him to send to us instantly some man of confidence, who might protect us, or at least be a spectator of what should befal us. We, besides, instructed him to advise the court of Abyssinia, that we were friends of Metical Aga, had letters from him to the king and the Ras, and distrusted the Naybe of Masuah.
Mahomet Gibberti executed this commission in the instant, with all the punctuality of an honest man, who was faithful to the instructions of his master, and was independent of every person else. He applied to Mahomet Adulai, (a person kept by Ras Michael as a spy upon the Naybe, and in the same character by Metical Aga); and Adulai, that very night, dispatched a trusty messenger, with many of whom he was constantly provided. This runner, charged with our dispatches, having a friend and correspondent of his own among the Shiho, passed, by ways best known to himself, and was safely escorted by his own friends till the fifth day, when he arrived at the customhouse of Adowa, and there delivered our dispatches to our friend Janni.
At Cairo, as I have already mentioned, I met with my friend father Christopher, who introduced me to the Greek patriarch, Mark. This patriarch had told me, that there were of his communion, to the number of about twenty, then in Abyssinia; some of them were good men and becoming rich in the way of trade; some of them had fled from the severity of the Turks, after having been detected by them in intimacy with Mahometan women; but all of them were in a great degree of credit at the court of Abyssinia, and possessing places under government greatly beyond his expectation. To these he wrote letters, in the manner of bulls from the pope, enjoining them, with regard to me, to obey his orders strictly, the particulars of which I shall have occasion to speak of afterwards.
Janni, then at Adowa in Tigré, was a man of the first character for good life and morals. He had served two kings of Abyssinia with great reputation, and Michael had appointed him to the customhouse at Adowa, to superintend the affairs of the revenue there, while he himself was occupied at Gondar. To him the patriarch gave his first injunctions as to watching the motives of the Naybe, and preventing any ill-usage from him, before the notice of my arrival at Masuah should reach Abyssinia.
Mahomet Adulai dispatched his messenger, and Mahomet Gibberti repaired that same night to the Naybe at Arkeeko, with such diligence that lulled him asleep as to any prior intelligence, which otherwise he might have thought he was charged to convey to Tigrè; and Mahomet Gibberti, in his conversation that night with Achmet, adroitly confirmed him in all the ideas he himself had first started in council with the Naybe. He told him the manner I had been received at Jidda, my protection at Constantinople, and the firman which I brought from the grand signior, the power of my countrymen in the Red Sea and India, and my personal friendship with Metical Aga. He moreover insinuated, that the coasts of the Red Sea would be in a dangerous situation if any thing happened to me, as both the sherriffe of Mecca and emperor of Constantinople would themselves, perhaps, not interfere, but would most certainly consider the place, where such disobedience should be shewn to their commands, as in a state of anarchy, and therefore to be abandoned to the just correction of the English, if injured.