Our company was now increased by our former landlord at Goutto, where we were obliged to Woldo's stratagem for discovering the cow that was hid. We sat down chearfully to dinner. Welled Amlac's fall had not spoiled his appetite; I think he ate equal to four ordinary men. I, for the most part, ate the venison, which was made into an excellent dish, only too much stuffed with all kind of spices. Fasil's wife alone seemed to have a very poor appetite, notwithstanding her violent fits of laughter, and outward appearance of chearfulness. A melancholy gloom returned upon her beautiful face, that seemed to indicate a mind not at ease. She was of a noble family of Galla, which had conquered and settled in the low country of Narea. I wondered that Fasil her husband had not carried her to Gondar. She said her husband had twenty other wives besides her, but took none of them to Gondar; which was a place of war, where it was the custom to marry the wives of their enemies that they had forced to fly, Fasil will be married therefore to Michael's wife, Ozoro Esther. I could not help being startled at this declaration, remembering that I was here losing my time, and forgetting my word of returning as soon as possible; but we had, for many months, lived in such constant alarms, that it was absolutely as needful to seize the moment in which we could repose our mind, as to give rest to the body.
In the afternoon we distributed our presents among the ladies. Fasil's wife was not forgot; and the beautiful Melectanea was covered with beads, handkerchiefs, and ribbands of all colours. Fasil's wife, on my first request, gave me a lock of her fine hair from the root, which has ever since, and at this day does suspend a plummet of an ounce and half at the index of my three-feet quadrant.
The next morning, the 13th of November, having settled our account with our host, we set out from the hospitable house of Shalaka Welled Amlac, after having engaged, by promises to the ladies, that we should pay them soon another visit. Our landlord accompanied us in person to the ford, and by this, and his readiness to shew us what he thought worthy of our curiosity, and by his care in ascertaining for us the distances and situations of places, he gave us a certain proof he was well contented, and therefore that we had nothing to fear.
We had both nights heard the noise of cataracts, and we thought it might be of the Nile, as we were in fact but five miles from the second small cataract at Kerr, which lay W. S. W. of us. We were informed, however, in the morning, that it was the sound of falls in the river Jemma, near whose banks this house is situated. We set out at eight o'clock, the hills of Aroossi bearing north; and at half past eight we came to the ford of the Jemma, which is strong, rugged, and uneven.
The Jemma here comes from the east; its banks are most beautifully shaded with acacia and other trees, growing as on the west of the Nile, that is, the trunks or stems of the trees at a distance, but the tops touching each other, and spreading broad. Though growing to no height, these woods are full of game of different kinds, mostly unknown in Europe. The bohur is here in great numbers; also the Buffalo, though not so frequent. Whoever sees Richmond hill has an idea of the banks of the Jemma, and the country east of it, with all that addition that an eastern and happier climate can give it; for the rains had now ceased, and every hill was in flower; the sun indeed was hot, but a constant and fresh breeze prevented its being felt near the river. The heat in this country ceases, in the warmest day, the moment we pass from the sun to the shade: we have none of these hot winds or violent reflections which we had suffered in Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, and both the coasts of the Red Sea.
There are two cataracts lower than this ford of the Jemma, the first about 300 yards below the ford, and another larger, something about half a mile; it is not, however, more than seven or eight feet high, perhaps about ninety feet broad, and the sheet of water is not entire, but is interrupted in many places. It falls, however, into a magnificent bason above 400 yards square, and very deep, in which are large fish in great plenty, but no crocodiles; nor indeed are there any seen, as I have heard above the third cataract, nor considerably below, when, after having made the tour of Gojam, it again turns northward towards its sources. The Gomari, however, often comes to the mouth of the Jemma, especially when the first rains fall; the crocodile seems to require a warmer climate.
After having satisfied our curiosity as to the Jemma, I began to reproach those that were with me about the panic which they felt the night before; these were, a Greek of Gondar, Strates, and three others, my servants, whom I brought from Cairo. "You see, said I, what danger there is; Welled Amlac is with us upon a mule, without a lance or shield, and only two naked servants with him; did not I tell you what was the meaning of the news?" Though this was spoken in a language of which it was impossible Amlac could know a syllable, yet he presently apprehended in part what I would say. "I see, says he, you believe what I told you last night to be false, and invented only to get from you a present: but you shall see; and if this day we do not meet Welled Aragawi and his soldiers, you are then in the right; it is as you imagine."—"You do me wrong, said I, and have not understood me, for how should you. Those white people believe too well all you told them, and are only apprehensive of your not being able to defend us, being without arms and followers. All I said was, that where you were, armed or unarmed, there was no danger."—"True, says he, you are now in Maitsha, and not in my country, which is Goutto; you are now in the worst country in all Abyssinia, where the brother kills his brother for a loaf of bread, of which he has no need: you are in a country of Pagans, or dogs, Galla, and worse than Galla; if ever you meet an old man here, he is a stranger; all that are natives die by the lance young; and yet, though these two chieftains I mentioned fight to-day, unarmed as I am, (as you well said) you are in no danger while I am with you. These people of Maitsha, shut up between the Jemma, the Nile, and the lake, have no where but from the Agows to get what they want; they come to the same market with us here in Goutto; the fords of the Jemma, they know, are in my hands; and did they offer an injury to a friend of mine, were it but to whistle as he passed them, they know I am not gentle; though not a Galla, they are sensible, one day or other, I should call them to account, though it were in the bed-chamber of their master Fasil."
"Your master, Welled Amlac, with your leave," said I. "Yes, mine too, said he, by force, but he never shall be my master by inclination, after murdering Kasmati Eshté. He calls me his brother, and believes me his friend. You saw one of his wives, whom he leaves at my house, last night, but I hope still to see him and his Galla slaughtered as the cow in my house was yesterday." "I am surprised, said I, your house was spared, and that Ras Michael did not burn it in either of his passages through Maitsha."—"In 1769, replied he, I was not with Fasil at Fagitta, and the Ras passed the Nile above this far beyond the Kelti; after which I returned with him to Gondar. In Ginbot[2], Fasil informed us that Amhara and Begemder were come over to him. When then all Maitsha joined Fasil, I went with my people to meet Michael at Derdera, as I knew he must pass the Nile here opposite to Abbo, and Begemder and Amhara would then be behind him, or else try to cross at Delakus, which was then swollen with rain, and unfordable: but apprehensive lest, marching still higher up along the Nile to find a ford, he might burn my house in his way, I myself joined him the night before he knew of Powussen's revolt, and he had it then in contemplation to burn Samseen. The next morning was that of his retreat, and he chose me to accompany him across the Nile, still considering me as his friend, and therefore, perhaps, he would have done no harm to my house."—"So it was you, said I, that led us that day into that cursed clay-hole, which you call a ford, where so many people and beasts were maimed and lost?"—He replied, "It was Fasil's spies that first persuaded him to pass there, or at Kerr. I kept him to the place where you passed; you would have all perished at Kerr. This, to be sure, was not a good ford, nor passable at all except in summer, unless by swimming; but so many men crossing had made it still worse; besides, do you remember what a storm it was?—what a night of rain? O Lady Mariam, always a virgin, said I, while they struggled in the mud and clay. O holy Abba Guebra Menfus Kedus, who never ate or drank from his mother's womb till his death, will you not open the earth, that all this accursed multitude may descend alive into hell, like Dathan and Abiram?"—A kind and charitable prayer!—"I thank you for it, Welled Amlac, said I; first, for carrying us to that charitable ford, where, with one of the strongest and ablest horses in the world, I had nearly perished:—and, secondly, for your pious wish, to dispose of us out of the regions of rain and cold into so warm quarters in company with Dathan and Abiram!"
"I did not know you was there, says he; I heard you had staid at Gondar in order to bring up the black horse. I saw a white person[3] with the Ras, indeed, who had a good hanjar and gun, but his mule was weak, and he himself seemed sick. As I returned I could have carried him off in the night, but I said, perhaps it is the brother of Yagoube, my friend and physician; he is white like him, and for your sake I left him. I was much with you white people in the time of Kasmati Eshté."—"And pray, said I, what did you after we passed the Abay?"—"After I saw that devil Ras Michael over, said Welled Amlac, I returned under pretence of assisting Kefla Yasous there, and, being joined by all my people, we fell upon the stragglers wherever we found them. You know what a day of rain it was; we took 17 guns, 12 horses, and about 200 mules and asses laden, and so returned home, leaving the rest to Fasil, who, if he had been a man, should have cut you all to pieces the day after."—"And what did you, said I, with these stragglers whom you met and robbed; did you kill them?"—"We always kill them, answered Amlac; we spare none; we never do a man an injury, and leave him alive to revenge it upon us after; but it was really the same; they were all sick and weak, and the hyæna would have finished them in the morning, so it was just saving them so much suffering to kill them outright the night before; and I assure you, Yagoube, whatever you may think, I did not do it out of malice."—From this conversation one may sufficiently guess what sort of a man Welled Amlac was, and what were his ideas of mercy.