[25] With very great difficulty, Bruce succeeded in getting the whole book of Canticles translated into each of these languages.
CHAPTER IX.
Bruce's Arrival and dangerous Detention in Masuah.
Masuah is a small island on the Abyssinian shore, standing in front of the town of Arkeeko, and forming an excellent harbour: it is three quarters of a mile in length, by about half that distance in breadth. One third of it is occupied by houses, one third by cisterns to receive rain-water, and the remainder is reserved as a place of burial.
Masuah was once a place of great commerce, possessing a share of the Indian trade; but its importance declined from the time when, with several other towns of the western coast of the Red Sea, it fell under the dominion of Selim, emperor of Constantinople.
When the Turks first came in possession of this island, a governor was sent to it from Constantinople; but its commerce having been ruined, it was soon found not to be worth the expense attending the establishment of a pashalic. The pasha was accordingly withdrawn; and the Turks, having been assisted in their conquest of the place by a chieftain of the mountains of Habab, he was created Naybe or Governor of Masuah, holding his title by a firman from the Ottoman Porte, to which he agreed to pay an annual tribute. The janisaries who had formed the Turkish garrison were left in the island, and, intermarrying with its inhabitants, they soon introduced into the country the lawless, predatory, despotic notions of their race.
The naybe, who thus became, in fact, the sovereign of the island, observing the great distance which separated him from the Turks in Arabia, whose garrisons were daily decaying; finding also that he was completely dependant upon Abyssinia for provisions, and even for water, soon perceived that he had better make advances to a country from which he could obtain both sustenance and protection. It was accordingly agreed between the King of Abyssinia and the naybe, that the former should receive one half of the customs of the port of Masuah, for which the latter should be permitted to enjoy his government unmolested, and purchase from Abyssinia whatever provisions, &c., he might require. The friendship of Abyssinia being thus secured, and the power of the Turks constantly declining in Arabia, the naybe began gradually to withdraw himself from paying tribute to the Pasha of Jidda, to whose government he had been annexed by the Porte. He, in short, annually received his firman as a matter of form, offering in return trifling presents, but giving nothing in the way of tribute.
It has already been stated, that, a short time before Bruce arrived at Masuah, Abyssinia, under the influence of its minister, Ras Michael, had been plunged into a war, and the great province of Tigré (bordering on the little dominion of Masuah) being thus drained of its troops, the naybe fraudulently availed himself of the opportunity to decline paying any longer his share of the customs to the crown of Abyssinia. This daring step he was induced to take from the peculiar situation in which Abyssinia seemed to be placed. Michael, the ras or governor of Tigré, having lately caused King Joas to be assassinated, sent to the Mountain of Wechne, upon which the royal princes were confined, for Hatze Hamnes, an imbecile, superstitious old man. On its being observed to him that Hamnes had only one hand, and that, by a most ancient custom, he was on this account ineligible for the throne, Michael angrily exclaimed, "What have kings to do with hands?" and no one daring to answer him, Hamnes was declared King of Abyssinia. Hatze Hamnes, whom Ras Michael had thus placed upon the throne, was more than seventy years of age, and Michael himself was not only nearly eighty, but lame, and scarcely able to stand. The naybe of Masuah, who was in the vigour of life, fancied, therefore, that he might safely despise a government which appeared to him to be in its dotage; but in this he was greatly mistaken. No sooner had he declared his intention of retaining the whole of the customs of Masuah, than the old ras informed him "that in the next campaign he would lay waste Arkeeko and Masuah, until they should be as desert as the wilds of Samhar!" and as the ras, during the whole of his eventful life, had always very faithfully performed all promises of this nature, many of the foreign merchants at Masuah fled from the approaching storm to Arabia. Still, however, the naybe showed no signs of fear, nor would he give the smallest portion of his revenues either to the King of Abyssinia or to the Pasha of Jidda.