The naybe again endeavoured, by intimidation, to prevail upon Bruce to pay him a thousand patakas; and his friends, seeing his obstinacy, and aware of the cruelty of his disposition, strongly recommended Bruce to give up all thoughts of proceeding to Abyssinia, as in passing through Samhar, among the many barbarous people whom the naybe commanded there, he would most surely be cut off. Bruce, however, peremptorily replied that he was determined to go forward; and accordingly, early in the morning of the 15th, he ordered his tents to be struck and his baggage made ready, to show that he was resolved to stay no longer. At eight o'clock he went to the naybe, who was almost alone, and who began, with no small fluency of speech, to enumerate the difficulties of the journey, the rivers, precipices, mountains, woods, wild beasts, savage, lawless people, &c., which were to be encountered, in order still to induce Bruce to remain at Masuah. In the midst of their conversation, a servant entered the room covered with dust, and apparently fatigued with a rapid journey from some distant place. The naybe, with much pretended uneasiness and surprise, read the letters which this man delivered to him, and then gravely told Bruce, that the three tribes who occupied Samhar, the common passage from Masuah to Tigré, had revolted, driven away his servants, and declared themselves independent. With apparent devotion, he then hypocritically lifted up his eyes, and said he thanked God that Bruce was not on his journey, as his death would have been unjustly imputed to him! Bruce only laughed at this barefaced imposition, on which the naybe told him he might proceed if he thought proper, but that he had considered it his duty to warn him of his danger. "We have plenty of firearms," replied Bruce, "and your servants have often seen at Masuah that we are not ignorant of the use of them. It is true we may lose our lives—that is in the hands of the Almighty—but we shall not fail to leave enough on the spot to give sufficient indication to the king and Ras Michael who were our assassins!" "What I mentioned about the Shiho," replied the naybe, whose treacherous countenance now assumed a look of complacency, "was only to try you; all is peace! I only wanted to keep you here, if possible, to cure my nephew Achmet; but, since you are resolved to go, be not afraid; the roads are safe enough; I will give you a person to conduct you safely."
After bidding adieu to this wretch, Bruce had a short interview with Achmet, who privately told him it was yet far from the naybe's intentions he should ever reach Gondar; but that he would take his final deliverance upon himself, and concluded by advising him to set out immediately.
The short account which we have here given of the Naybe of Masuah may appear exaggerated to those who have never had the fortune to treat with human beings of this description. But, in fact, no human beings can be worse than the people of Masuah; who, as we have already observed, are a mongrel race between the savages of the western coast of the Red Sea, and those super-savages, the Turkish janisaries.
Salt visited this place in 1810, forty-one years after Bruce had left it. Notwithstanding the handsome presents he made to the governor, he was unable to resist the impositions of the naybe, his brothers, and his sons; "and among this tribe of locusts," says Salt, "I was compelled to distribute nearly five hundred dollars before I could get clear of the place. With a pleasure somewhat similar to that expressed by Gil Blas, when he escaped from the robbers' cave, we quitted Arkeeko. Among all the descriptions of men I have ever met with, the character of the half-civilized savages found at Arkeeko is the most detestable, as they have ingeniously contrived to lose all the virtues of the rude tribes to which they belonged, without having acquired anything but the vices of their more civilized neighbours. The only description I recollect that would particularly suit them, may be found in Mr. Bruce's very energetic account of the inhabitants of Sennaar."
It is very singular that Salt, who thus invariably corroborates Bruce in all the principal features of his history, should have been, as we shall shortly see, so completely carried away by the party spirit which existed against him. "Adversity," it has been justly remarked, "makes men friends;" but, though Bruce and Salt suffered at Masuah and Arkeeko under the same rod, yet the latter even there takes every opportunity of supporting Lord Valentia in his petty attempt to convict Bruce of "falsehood" and "exaggeration." The tide of public opinion was still strong against Bruce, and on its faithless waters Lord Valentia and his secretary were enabled to float in triumph.
CHAPTER X.
Journey from Arkeeko, over the Mountain of Tarenta to Gondar, the Capital of Abyssinia.
On the 15th of November Bruce left Arkeeko, and, after crossing a small plain, pitched his tent near a shallow pit of rain-water. Before him were the mountains of Abyssinia, in three distinct ridges. The first broken into gullies, and thinly covered with shrubs; the second higher, steeper, more rugged and bare; and the third a range of sharp-pointed mountains, which would be considered high in any part of Europe. Far above them all towered that stupendous mass, the Mountain of Tarenta, the apex of which is sometimes buried in the clouds; while at other times, enveloped in mist and darkness, it becomes the seat of lightning, thunder, and storm. Tarenta is the highest pinnacle of that long, steep chain of mountains which, running parallel to the Red Sea, forms the boundary of the seasons. On its east side, or towards the Red Sea, the rainy season is from October to April; while on the western or Abyssinian side, cloudy, cold, and rainy weather reigns from May till October.
While Bruce was in his tent he was visited by his grateful friend and patient, Achmet, who told him not to go to Dobarwa, for, although it was a good road, the safest was always the best. "You will be apt to curse me," he added, "when you are toiling and sweating in ascending Tarenta, the highest mountain in Abyssinia; but you may then consider if the fatigue of your body is not overpaid by the absolute safety you will find yourselves in. Dobarwa belongs to the naybe, and I cannot answer for the orders he may have given to his own servants; but Dixan is mine, although the people are much worse than those of Dobarwa. I have written to my officers there; and as you are strong and robust, the best I can do for you is to send you by a rugged road and a safe one." Achmet, Bruce, and his party then rose with solemnity, and repeating the fedtah, or prayer of peace, they parted never to meet again. "Thus finished," says Bruce, in the narrative of his travels, "a series of trouble and vexation, not to say danger, superior to anything I ever before had experienced, and of which the bare recital (though perhaps a too minute one) will give but an imperfect idea. These wretches possess talents for tormenting and alarming far beyond the power of belief; and, by laying a true sketch of them before a traveller, an author does him the most real service." "In this country," Bruce most justly adds, "the more truly we draw the portrait of man, the more we seem to fall into caricature."