The next night, the 1st of January 1771, according to order, I waited upon the king with Confu and Engedan, and with them Yasine: measures were then taken for buying their horses and coats of mail; the Ras had advanced part of the money, the rest was to be made up by the meery, or king's duty, due by the Mahometan provinces, which had not been paid since he went to Tigrè; a Mahometan servant of the king was sent for from the customhouse; with him was to go a man from Yasine, and with them I sent my letters by the hand of Soliman, a black of Ras el Feel, a man remarkable for his strength, courage, and size, and very shrewd and discerning, under the appearance of an idiot: Yasine was sent with them to get a safe conduct from his friend Fidele Shekh of Atbara, who was to convoy them to Beyla, and thence to Sennaar.
It was not without great dispute and altercation the king would allow me the permission to send letters; at last, seeing he could do no better, it was agreed that, as an immediate engagement between Powussen, Gusho, and Ras Michael, was inevitable, I should swear not to attempt to leave him till that affair was settled some way or other; but the king insisted I should also take an oath, that, should he be victorious over, or reconciled to the rebels, if the engagement I was under in my own country was not fulfilled, and I recovered my health, I should bring as many of my brethren and family as possible, with their horses, muskets, and bayonets; that, if I could not pass by Sennaar, I should come by the way of the East Indies from Surat to Masuah, which, by how much it was more tedious, was by so much more secure, than that by Sennaar.
I cannot but hope, the impossibility of performing this oath extinguished the sin of breaking it; at any rate, it was personal, and the subsequent death of the king[6] must have freed me from it; be that as it will, it had this good effect, that it greatly composed my mind for the time, as I now no longer considered myself as involved in that ancient and general rule of the country, Never to allow a stranger to return to his home. We that night learned, that the king had been in great straits ever since he came from Tigrè; that the Ras, who was possessed of all the revenues of the provinces that were in their allegiance, had never yet given the king an ounce of gold; and that he furnished his daily subsistence from his own house, a cow for his own and great officers table, and two loaves of bread for each of his servants; as small an allowance as any private person gave. It was believed that the Ras had left most of his money in Tigrè, and had trusted to the contributions he was to levy upon the great men whenever he should cross the Tacazzé; but in this he disappointed himself by his cruelty, for no person came before him, on his arrival at Gondar, from whom he could raise a farthing.
It was about the 20th of January, that a message arrived from Powussen, to tell the Ras he had taken the usurper Socinios prisoner, and held him in irons at the king's disposal. He upbraided Michael with the cruelties of his executions, and declared his resolution of calling him to an account for these personally at Gondar; he warned him in time, to repass the Tacazzé, and retire while it was in his power to his government of Tigrè, where nobody would molest him, and leave the king at liberty to act for himself. Gusho likewise sent a messenger, but what word he brought did not transpire; after seeing the King and Ras Michael, both these messengers proceeded to Fasil. Soon after this came a message from Fasil, desiring only that the King and the Ras might renew to him the grant of his father's lands and estates, which he formerly possessed: what was the meaning of this message I could never learn; he was already in full possession of what he asked, and more; no person had attempted to take any thing from him, nor was it indeed in their power.
Proclamation was made accordingly in terms of the request, and all the lands that he had possessed were given him: before he could have news of this first grant, a second messenger came, desiring that he might be confirmed in his government of Maitsha, Damot, and Agow. This too was immediately granted him, but a condition was added, that he should bring the troops of these provinces, and as many others as he could raise, to join the king with all possible speed, and take the field with Ras Michael against Powussen and Gusho; and this was but what he had spontaneously promised when he made his peace at Dingleber. At the same time Ayto Aylo, brother to Engedan, was proclaimed governor of Begemder; and all people holding of the king or of Aylo's friends, (for he had a very large estate in that province) were ordered to join him; but a very few came, among whom was the famous Guigarr, chief of the clan, Waag of Lasta, son to Aylo's sister.
Mean time the king used all the means in his power to induce the Iteghé to return to Koscam, for her presence in Gojam kept alive the spirit of a number of people that were attached to her, who bore very impatiently to see her banished, as she then was, though resident with her daughter Ozoro Welleta Israel, and surrounded by the forces of Aylo her grandson, who was governor of Gojam, and to whom half of that province belonged in property. But the queen was resolute never to trust Ras Michael, though it was believed she sent the king a sum in gold privately by Engedan.
It was in the end of January that another message arrived from Fasil, excusing his coming to Gondar on account of the badness of his health; he said, besides, he could not trust Michael unless he gave him Welleta Selassé, his granddaughter, to wife, and sent her to him to Buré. I have already mentioned that the Ras was fond of this young lady himself, and nothing but that hindered him from giving her to the king in marriage; and it was said, and I believe with truth, that some delicacy[7] the king had expressed about this since his return from Tigrè, was the reason of coldness between him and the Ras, and of Michael's putting the king on so short allowance on his first coming to Gondar: but all that was now removed by the necessities of the times; gold came from Tigrè in plenty; even Powussen had sent some of the revenue of Begemder, all the other provinces, a proportion, with butter, cattle, and cotton cloths, for the maintenance of the king's household and troops: for my part, though I enjoyed the name of several posts, I had partaken since this last revolution of a very small part of their revenues; I had been liberally supplied in the king's absence by Ozoro Esther and the queen. I had few servants, and lived cheaply in the Iteghé's palace at Koscam; but after my arrival, the king, on purpose I believe to disconcert my journey, ran me grievously into debt with the soldiers, and other expences that were, as I was told, absolutely necessary; it is true, these were paid in part at times but very irregularly. Ras Michael was not a man to be craved, nor was my temper such as could be brought to crave him; from this it arose that often I had been in great straits, and obliged to live sparingly, which luckily was never a great hardship upon me, in order to fulfill my promise to others. And now the campaign was beginning, horses, and mules, and every thing necessary were to be purchased, and I was in debt above one hundred pounds, nor would it have been possible I ever should have cleared myself, for my daily expences were enormous, if it had not been for the situation that a certain Greek, named Petros, was in, from whom I borrowed about three hundred pounds, as I shall after mention. With regard to Kasmati Fasil, he sent me, twice, two large jars of honey from my lordship of Geesh, at two different times: the first was taken by Coque Abou Barea, the last tasted so bitter of lupines, that no use could be made of it. I was a Sovereign, it is true, and my revenue was what wise men have said is the best,—the love of the people. It went, however, but little way towards supporting my dignity.
While the king was at Kahha, keeping the festival of the Epiphany, he received a very extraordinary visit from Amha Yasous, son of the governor of Shoa, offering his personal service and assistance to the king, and brought with him, as a present, 500 ounces of gold, and a thousand excellent horsemen ready equipt at all points. Upon his being presented to the king, two young noblemen were instructed to be ready to lay hold of him by the arms, and prevent his throwing himself upon the ground if he intended so to do. The king was seated upon the throne, very richly dressed in brocade, a very fine muslin web wrapt loosely about him, so as to hang in plaits, and in some parts show, and in some conceal, the flowers of the cloth of gold of which his waistcoat was composed. His hair was loose, combed out at its full length, and falling about his head in every direction, and a fork, like a skewer, made of a rhinoceros horn, with a gold button or head upon it, stuck thro' his hair near his temples; he was all perfumed with rose water, and two people stood on the opposite sides of the tent, each of them with a silver bottle full of it.
Amha Yasous with his thousand horse presented himself before the door of the tent, and rode on till he was compleatly in it; he then descended as in a great hurry or surprise, and ran forward, stooping, to the foot of the throne, inclining his body lower and lower as he approached; and, just before the act of prostration, he was seized by Tecla Mariam and Guebra Menfus Kedus, and prevented from kissing the ground; the king held his hand uncovered, but not extended, that is, as if he did not intend or expect that he should kiss it. Amha Yasous, after the struggle was over about the prostration, suddenly seized the king's hand and kissed it, with some resistance on the part of the king, who, when he had kissed the back of his hand, turned the palm likewise; a great mark of familiarity and confidence in this country. There was a small stool, about half a foot from the ground, covered with a Persian carpet. Amha Yasous attempted to speak standing, but was not suffered, but constrained by the two noblemen to sit down on the little stool; they then deluged him so with rose-water, that I do believe he never in his life was so wet with rain. After some general questions the tent was cleared. All this ceremonial was premeditated and studied; the etiquette could not have been more punctually and uniformly observed in any court of Europe, and would have just signified what it did here.
Amha Yasous was a man from twenty-six to twenty-eight years of age, tall, and of a just degree of corpulence, with arms and legs finely made; he had a very beautiful face, small features, and the most affable manners. I have thought, when I have seen them together, that the king, Engedan, and himself, were three of the handsomest men I had ever beheld in any country; besides this, all three had fine understandings, noble sentiments, and courage superior to the greatest danger; charitable too, and humane inclinations, were it not for that accursed indifference, or rather propensity, one of them had to shed human blood; this the young king had imbibed in the school of Michael, but for natural talents he certainly was the first of the three.