We encamped at the bottom of the hill on the south-west side of the town, on the banks of the river, which rises in the mountains six miles off to the south, and encompasses the half of the hill where Sancaho stands; after which it turns northward, but was now mostly dry. While we were pitching our tent, I sent one of Yasine's men to order Gimbaro to send us the usual quantity of provision for ourselves and camels, and told him also, that my camels were few in number, and weak; desiring he would send two, or one at least, which should be stated in his deftar, or account of rent, for that year. I was astonished to see Yasine's men return, bringing with them only a woolly-headed black, the Erbab's son, as it seemed, who, with great freedom and pertness, and in very good Amharic, said, "My father salutes you; if ye eat what he eats, ye shall be very welcome." I asked him, What that was?—He said, "Elephant killed yesterday; and as for camels ye demand, he tells you he has none; elephants are his camels, and rhinoceroses are his mules."
Ayto Confu's servants, who heard this message delivered, and who were as desirous of getting over this journey to Ras el Feel as I was, advised me to go with him up the hill to the town, and expostulate with the Erbab, who, he said, would be ashamed to refuse. Accordingly, I armed myself with a pair of pistols at my girdle, with a fusil and bayonet in my hand; and took with me two servants with their pistols also, each carrying a large ship-blunderbuss. We mounted the hill with great difficulty, being several times obliged to pull up one another by the hands, and entered into a large room about fifty feet long. It was all hung round with elephants heads and trunks, with skeletons of the heads of some rhinoceroses, and of monstrous hippopotami, as also several heads of the giraffa. Some large lion skins were thrown on several parts of the room, like carpets; and Gimbaro stood upright at one end of it, naked, only a small cloth about his middle; the largest man I ever remembered to have seen, perfectly black, flat-nosed, thick-lipped, and woolly-headed; and seemed to be a perfect picture of those Cannibal giants which we read of as inhabiting enchanted castles in fairy tales.
He did not seem to take notice at my first entering the room, nor till I was very near him. He then came aukwardly forward, bowing, endeavouring to kiss my hand, which I withdrew from him, and said in a firm voice, "I apprehend, Sir, you do not know me." He bowed and said he did, but did not conceive, at the time, it was me that encamped at the brook. "You did know, Sir, when you sent your son with Yasine's servant, and you know that you are considerably in my debt. Besides, if you had any gratitude, you would remember the arrears I remitted you, and the presents I made you when at Serbraxos, even though you misbehaved there. Your message to me while below at the river was the language of a rebel. Are you willing to be declared in rebellion?" He said, "By no means; he had always been a faithful servant to Ayto Confu, Ras Michael, and the king, and had come to Serbraxos upon receiving the first order, and would obey whatever I should command." "Then pay me the meery you owe me, and begin first by bringing two camels." "He said, he never refused the camels, and the message he sent was but in sport." "And was it sport too, Sir, said I, when you said you would send me the flesh of elephants to eat? Did you ever know a Christian eat any sort of flesh that a Mahometan killed?" He answered, "No; and begging my pardon, promised he would send me bread and honey, and the camels should be ready in the morning. They must be ready to-night, said I, and before night too; for I am to dispatch a servant this evening to Ayto Confu to complain of your behaviour, as I do not know what you may meditate against us in our way to Ras el Feel." He begged now, in the most earnest manner, I would not complain; and said, he would have all his spies out to the eastward, that not a Shangalla should pass to molest us, without our being informed of them. Some of his principal people now interfering, I consented to forget and forgive what had passed. We then ate bread, and drank beer, to show the reconciliation was sincere, and so the affair ended.
About six in the evening came two strong camels, and about thirty loaves of bread made of Dora; two large wheat loaves for me, as also a jar of wild honey, of excellent flavour, and with these a present to Ayto Confu's servant.
On the 18th, about six in the morning, Erbab Gimbaro, coming down to our tent, brought thirty loaves of Dora as before, and four of wheat, for the journey; and we had already enough of honey, upon which we breakfasted with the Erbab, who, to confirm the friendship, took two or three glasses of strong spirits, which put him into excellent humour. His son, too, that he might atone for his last night's misbehaviour, brought a better camel than any we had seen, and exchanged it for one of those that came yesterday in the evening. I, on the other hand, gave him a cotton cloth, and some trifles, which made him perfectly happy; and we parted in the most cordial friendship possible, after having made a promise that, at my return, I should stay a week at Sancaho to hunt the elephant and rhinoceros.
Before leaving Sancaho, I had an opportunity of verifying a fact hitherto doubtful in natural history. Mr Hasselquist, the Swedish traveller, when at Cairo, saw the skins of two giraffos stuffed, which came from Sennaar. He gives as minute a description as possible he could from seeing the skins only; but says nothing about the horns, because I suppose he did not see them; on which account the doubt remained undecided, whether the giraffo's horns were solid as the deer's, and cast every year; or whether they were hollow, attached to a core, or bone, like those of sheep, and consequently permanent. The Count de Buffon conjectures them to be of this last kind, and so I found them. They are twisted in all respects like the horns of an antelope.
At ten minutes past eight we set out from Sancaho; but my people took it into their heads, that, notwithstanding the fair behaviour of Erbab Gimbaro, he intended to lay some ambush to cut us off, and rob us on the way. For my part, I was very well satisfied of the contrary; but this did not hinder them from forsaking the accustomed road, and getting among a thick wood of canes; we were obliged to cut our way out of them when our direction was west, or to the southward of west. They were also afraid of Abd el Jileel.
At ten minutes past eleven we crossed the Bedowi, which we had passed twice before; at half past eleven we crossed it again, travelling southward; and a quarter after twelve we were so entangled with woods, and so fatigued with cutting the way for our camels, that we thought we should get no further. We had, however, continued till three quarters past one in a direction south-east, at which time we were not above five miles from Sancaho; and, at half past two, had turned south-west on the banks of the large river Tokoor-Ohha, which signifies the Black River. It comes from the mountains of Awassa on the south-east, and, after winding considerably, it falls into the Guangue, about eight miles from Guanjook.